Forbes released a study today on the best cities for jobs in 2018. Concentrating on the 71 most populated cities, each ranking was determined by job growth, potential, migration, population growth and cost of living. Cleveland came in dead last, even beaten out by the so-called 61st worst city for jobs, Detroit.
This is a massive decline from two years ago where Glassdoor ranked Cleveland as the 15th best city for jobs. While Forbes and Glassdoor admittedly have different approaches to what determines the “best city,” the fact that Forbes has a longstanding history of well researched, documented and cited data leads us to believe that Cleveland may be in some serious trouble.
In 2017, Forbes also reported on the slow rise in employment rates throughout Ohio in general. Three Ohio cities tied with New Orleans for the lowest employment outlook, with Youngstown, Akron and Dayton all looking at only 5% increases in hiring.
Forbes’ research shows that metropolitan areas in the South and on the West Coast are bringing more employers than anywhere else, and the Rust Belt is continuing to suffer. Cleveland may have come in dead last, but we’re in similar company alongside Pittsburgh in 58th, St. Louis in 62nd and Milwaukee in 66th.
Then again, Forbes also called Cleveland “America’s Hottest City” in 2016, but currently lists us as the 101st out of 200 best cities for business and careers. It’s difficult to tell which ranking we should actually care about, considering quick research shows that Forbes has consistently had mixed opinions about The Land.
We’re either the worst, or the best, which just further proves that it’s Cleveland against the world.
This article appears in May 2-8, 2018.
Forbes seems to have a chip on its shoulder when it comes to Cleveland. Why is this?
How important is Forbes Magazine anyhow? More…or less…relevant than George Forbes?
If Cleveland is doing so poorly, why are all those well-heeled Millennials coming here?
And if there are no jobs, who is filling up all those new apartments that are mushrooming everywhere? They aren’t cheap, and a couple of starving roommates with shitty, dead-end jobs can’t afford them. So wuzzup wit dat noise, Forbes?
Someone is yanking someone else’s chain.
Or else they can’t make up their minds.
Like, WTF is your problem, Forbes?
Somehow BJ still has a job.
How Nashville managed to lure a company from NYC and Cleveland hasnt, its perplexing.
Of course, Clevelands diehard, negative attitude against business probably has something to do with it. The leftists here are always looking for a golden goose that they can rob to finance one wasteful program after another. Programs that encourage dependence on government and programs that allow politicians to hire friends and family into jobs they are totally unqualified for.
We need to aggressively go after New York City businesses that are being taxed to death and offer them a good deal. That good deal should be the standard for all. We should also aggressively try to encourage the unemployable in this area to move. Move far away to a place where there are jobs for unskilled workers. The media and politicians are always crying about the poor. Well throwing crumbs at the poor keeps them from having a good life. They barely eek by and theft, prostitution, And drug dealing are the only way to get extra money.
Let these people go. Encourage them to go. Cut their benefits off if they dont go.
Go recruit business in high tax states and get them to put all it part of their business here. Thats where money should be spent. Not on libraries for leftist meetings and perverts and not on public housing to keep the huge criminal element in Cleveland.
You need to STFU, troll. ALL your usernames need to be aggressively to encouraged to move. Move far away from this site. Not my house, not my decision. It boggles my mind that you and all your usernames are allowed to continue spamming and polluting this board. No wonder so many users are jumping off this ship.
You need to move to a place where there are more right-wing nutjobs without lives. Texas might be a good choice. Or at least back to the PD comment boards, with the rest of your pals.
Where are there jobs for unskilled workers? NOWHERE. The world has changed…it’s you who haven’t crawled out of the basement for years, or left your computer screen and your alt-right buddies online.
Tell me where they need to go, okay? China? Mexico? Southeast Asia?
If you had your dreams come true, it would be an Auschwitz West. Ever heard of that placet, sonny? Probably not.
Libraries for leftist meetings and perverts? When was the last time you even checked out a library book, sonny? Put down the pipe and the mouse. Get a goddam life already. Or if you hate the way Cleveland appears to you, and the pinko dust bunnies under your bed frighten you so much, why don’t you just off yourself?.
And another thing, sonny…too many people in this town don’t have the education or the skills that are needed for the jobs that you want to bring here with lower taxes or tax breaks. Companies need and want a local workforce that is qualified to do the jobs they bring here and make available to job seekers.
A high school diploma or a GED ain’t gonna cut it. And if they have neither, these companies won’t give the job applicants the time of day. If the locals can’t do the work, they won’t be hired. So why the hell would these highly-taxed businesses ever want to come HERE?
Put down the bottle or the pipe or the pills and either WAKE UP…or SHUT UP.
And pick one username and register, spamming troll. That’s Priority One for YOU.
Don’t keep trying to look like an army of conservatives. You’re merely an army of ONE.
Once again, if you have a differing opinion than the leftists, they attack your character. Thanks for the display Grizz. You’re probably right. It must be the comment section that’s making people stop reading this politicized entertainment magazine.
You have a nickname and a cat photo. You’re not exactly making yourself public either. Probably because your opinion about those with lower incomes is racist and backwards. People can develop the skills neccessary for these jobs… But that’s not the way towards your communist utopia though is it grizz?
I’m not your guy, btw.
Why highlight this article and not Priceline’s recent one where they listed CLE as a top emerging destination?
When you’re down to stems and seeds, throw down the black race card and the red Commie card. Yeah, you really Trumped me with that hand. Joe McCarthy would be proud of you. Do you even know what Joe was all about, kiddo? Or am I wasting even more keystrokes on you? Were you asleep in the back of the room that day? History izzzz soooo boring….zzzzzzz…next thing, teach will tell us that whites and Hispanics in Cleveland have lower incomes, too…whatta drag.zzzzzzz
From a 60-year-old Cleveland Resident with a JDS, and a member of Cleveland’s “Media Elite” for four decades. . .
All of these surveys are just a snapshot in time, Forbes has been taking these snapshots for decades, with a transparent methodology, that pretty much tracks with US Census Data.
People are still leaving Cuyahoga County in droves, and the city itself and its residents are getting poorer and more poorly educated by the minute.
Anybody who drives outside the downtown core into the neighborhoods can see that with their own eyes.
One only has to look at the sheer volume of abandoned residential housing stock, and devastated retail space created by house flipping, the collapse of residential home prices , and neighborhood abandonment of the last decade to understand why all the tax-abated, high-income downtown residential development is just a drop in the bucket, and may actually be detrimental to taxpayer funded city services along with public/charter school resources.
Downtown Cleveland, Team NEO, and their ilk are nothing more than PR cheerleaders for Cleveland’s Succubus Financial Institutions, and their bought and paid for Politicians kowtowing to the will of Casino Millionaires, Sports Team Owners, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, Cleveland’s corrupted Cultural Institutions, while continuing to Hard Sell their alternative reality to the City’s impoverished majority, just to maintain their own power base, and the private financial rewards that power brings to a select few.
Well I see that JobsOhio, a government sponsored institution in which we have no idea what they pay people, is doing a great job bringing companies into Ohio! Go Kasich! When you have a moribund Republican legislature that does nothing but pass anti-abortion and anti-gun control legislation, this is what you get. Enjoy, and keep voting Republican! They do nothing to help the cities of Ohio.
Finally, the adults in the room have spoken. Thanks, guys. And I totally agree with both of you.Downtown is thriving, and there are pockets of prosperity and gentrification in a sea of poverty, decay, and decline.
Cleveland is getting better and worse at the same time, but mostly worse. Which one it is for you depends entirely on your income and your skin tone. The movers and shakers and the cheerleaders and the politicians and the greedheads are still lining their own pockets and feathering their own nests…same as always… at the expense of everyone else.
Those who can, flee to the boonies, especially outside the county. The lower middle class and the poor are stuck in the city, where the streets are crumbling and city services are iffy and spotty. And crime gets worse every year. Even in the “good” neighborhoods.
Ask the man who knows: a 26-year city resident who’s now too old and too poor to even think about going anywhere. It used to upset me when I thought about being stuck here for the rest of my life, but I’ve gotten used to the idea. Human beings can get used to almost anything, given enough time. So I’ll die here… probably with a snow shovel in my hand.
My perspective is that of someone who was born and raised and lived 30 years in Cincinnati and the past 6 in Cleveland.
Jobs, culture, work ethic, general vibe…. Cleveland wins HANDS DOWN. I realize that even fewer people care about Cincinnati – and rightly so, it’s a complete shithole with even more greed, resting on laurels of the past, and general hatefulness among its residents than almost any other city I’ve been in in the country, perhaps the world. I really don’t like Cincinnati. Especially after having lived in Cleveland!
What I try to keep in mind with these ranking lists is… Forbes is in business to make money. Not to tell the truth or paint an accurate picture. They print what they think will sell. Data can be manipulated to illustrate any conclusion, and it’s always been fashionable to hate on Cleveland, Ohio, the rust belt.
The problem is that these types of statements (“Cleveland sucks for jobs”) become self-fulfilling. If we’re talking about the city proper, well, to be frank, who cares. We live in a metropolitan area, and there is economic prosperity AND extreme poverty all over the place here. Just like everywhere.
I was out in Solon/Glenwillow today and saw all the industry, manufacturing–businesses–out there. That doesn’t exist in Cincinnati. AND they’re building more! Numbers and statistics only show part of the picture. Talk to real people and you’ll get many opinions, but workers in Cleveland – in my experience, both as an employee and as someone providing jobs – by and large have a pretty good work ethic and are, generally speaking, pretty happy. We know that we have lots of challenges and problems as a community. We all know that. But we also know that we are all in this together – and that is something you don’t get everywhere. Especially Cincinnati, where everyone seems to hate everyone and everybody, and the biggest cultural export is “Cincinnati chili.”
TL;DR Forbes is trying to sell units, that’s it. Yes, it kinda sucks here, but it sucks everywhere now, largely because of media empires like Forbes, Fox, and the like. Do me a favor and throw that Forbes issue in the trash where it belongs. Just don’t litter Cleveland with it!
“Cincinnati: a complete shithole with even more greed, resting on laurels of the past, and general hatefulness among its residents than almost any other city I’ve been in in the country, perhaps the world. where everyone seems to hate everyone and everybody…”
Substitute “Chicago” for “Cincinnati” and I could have written your post almost word for word. Yeah, Chicago has always had plenty to offer, but it’s a tough, mean, dangerous, dog-eat-dog city where you’d better know where you are and what you’re doing and you need to watch your back almost all the time.
People who bitch about cronyism and corruption and violent crime and entrenched racism and greed have never spent much time in Chicago….it is Cleveland on steroids… three times its physical size and seven times as many people. With all the good and the bad that those statistics imply. I have never missed it as much as I thought I would. But I’ll bleed Cubbie Blue until I die. Some things, you can’t change.
Been to Cincy a number of times and it looks less scuzzy and the hills and the river make it appear attractive but it’s a deeply Republican city in a deeply red part of the state. It’s been called part of “Oh-tucky” for a long time and with good reason. Best thing I can see about Cincy is that the winters are a lot milder and it doesn’t get all that goddam snow that Cleveland does.
My wife was offered a job there years ago but she turned it down because she has a large extended family here that goes back to the Eighties…as in Eighteen-Eighties. Clevelanders are like that…die-hards with deep roots who work their asses off. Chicagoans are from everywhere and anywhere and come there to make a buck. Some do and stay, some don’t and leave. What did Fobes say about Chicago? probably kissing its ass. And yeah, it’s always been cool to hate on Cleveland and Ohio. It pisses a lot of people off, but after a while, you shrug and get used to it. As we said in Chicago: ” Hey, you don’t like it here? Screw you, pal…the next plane leaves O’Hare in exactly two minutes. Finish your Old Style and hit the road.”
Happiness is cleveland in your rear view mirror.
cleveland, a good place to be….from