Springfield employment gains among highest in Ohio since pandemic

Springfield tied Cincinnati for the second-highest employment growth rate since the COVID pandemic, among small and large metro areas in Ohio, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

The growth rate, at 2.3% from February 2020 through March 2024, puts Springfield in the upper-middle of the range for Ohio and the surrounding region, which itself was lower than the national average.

“I would attribute this to a consistent retention strategy with our existing employers and then attraction strategy that we’ve had for the better part of a decade,” said Horton Hobbs, vice president of economic development for the Greater Springfield Partnership. “It’s been paying dividends and it continued to pay dividends even during COVID. We had job creation when a lot of communities didn’t.”