NE Ohio has a vibrant business climate, much more diverse than the turn of the century industries that created our town (steel, oil, shipping, heavy manufacturing). It’s the job of Team NEO, the economic development non-profit that serves 17 counties surrounding Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Youngstown, to make sure that our region is offering business incentives and luring the latest and most cutting edge growth industries to open up shop in our region. According to Team NEO, our region has the fourth largest share of employees working for a company headquartered in the region (VS working for a national or international company not headquartered here) of anywhere in the country.
So, what are the key industry clusters that employ the most people in the region?
- Health care & medicine, including Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals Health System, MetroHealth Medical Center, Summa Health System, Akron General Medical Center)
- Science & Engineering, including: NASA Glenn, URS, GPD Group, HWH Architects Engineers, DLZ, Middough (and the Cleveland Engineering Society is a great local resource as well)
- Biotechnology including Athersys, Ben Venue Laboratories, Akron Biotech (and local non-profits BioEnterprise in Cleveland and the Akron Global Business Accelorator are great resources for start ups and mid sized/growing firms in this niche). And these local biomed companies were named to the Inc 5000 in 2013
- Banking including: KeyBank, PNC, Huntington, FirstMerit, Charter One/Citizens, JP Morgan Chase, US Bank, Fifth Third
- Legal including: JonesDay, Baker Hostetler, Calfee Halter, Thompson Hine, Squire Sanders, Tucker Ellis, Ulmer & Berne, Benesch Friendlander
- Accounting & Finance including Ernst & Young, SS&G, PwC, Deloitte, Cohen & Co, KPMG, Skoda Minotti
- Manufacturing including General Motors, Timken, Swagelok, Ford, Lubrizol, Arcelor Mittal, Nestle, Rockwell Automation, Invacare, Philips Healthcare
- Education including: Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, University of Akron, Cuyahoga Community College
The Plain Dealer highlighted these and other business climate info in their story “Cleveland Again Favored as a Headquarter City“.
Cleveland and Akron companies on the Fortune 1,000 list:
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (Akron)
Progressive (Mayfield Heights)
FirstEnergy Corporation (Akron)
Parker Hannifin Corporation (Mayfield Heights)
Sherwin-Williams Company (Cleveland)
Travel Centers of America (Westlake)
Cliffs Natural Resources (Cleveland)
The J. M. Smucker Company (Orville)
The Timken Company (Canton)
KeyCorp (Cleveland)
Aleris International Inc. (Beachwood)
RPM International, Inc. (Medina)
PolyOne Corp. (Avon Lake)
Diebold Corp. (Canton)
Lincoln Electric (Cleveland)
Medical Mutual of Ohio (Cleveland)
Hyster-Yale Materials or NACCO (Mayfield Heights)
Applied Industrial Technologies (Cleveland)
A. Schulman (Akron)
And, each year The Plain Dealer’s editorial board publishes its annual editorial agenda, which lists the region’s biggest challenges and opportunities and outlines the focus of where they will be spending their dollars & staff time keeping the public informed. And the August mid year update to that editorial agenda is the 1/2 year report card. Both offer interesting insights into our local economy.
If you are relocating to NE Ohio and your other half needs to find employment, one of the best resources to start with is Crain’s Book of Lists which is published very December and lists not only
NE Ohio’s largest employers (both public & private) but dozens of industry niche lists like largest law firms, accounting firms, banks, venture capital firms, insurance agencies, software developers, advertising
agencies & PR firms, etc. A good investment if one of you is looking for a job in NE Ohio!
Executive Arrangements is proud to call most of the companies on this list clients. When they are recruiting or relocating employees into NE Ohio, it’s our job to insure the whole family is educated about the area, warmly welcomed and connected to the people and resources they need to jumpstart life in their new town. Interested in hearing more? Call us at 216.231.9311