Does Columbus have any industry?

[skycity]

I saw a map one time of the amount of products each city exports. It seemed like Columbus was WAY below Cleveland and Cincinnati. Is Columbus significantly less industry-oriented? If so, has this helped Columbus find success in the new "information" economy, while other Ohio cities decline?

[Randy@Tacoma]

Youve got it.... the term "rust-belt cities" comes to mind when hearing of Cleveland and Cicinnati. They have been locked into place by laws, so they couldnt annex lands in wake of white-flight like Columbus could and on top of that, their industry oriented nature (Cleveland on Lake Erie and Cincinnati on the Ohio River made good sites for easy transport) shrivvled up as industry was sent to China and Mexico. Therefore Cleveland and Cincinnati's tax-base shrivvled up while Columbus continues to grow today. (Of course, thats in a nutshell.... im sure theres a hell of a lot more to it than that)

[roscoe97]

Yeah Basically Columbus' "industries" are in the service sector. There are a few factories and manufacturing plants, but it mostly has call center type positions in many different industries as well as white collar positions in many different industries. However Cleveland and Cincinnati have more "dirty industrial" jobs, but also leave Columbus far behind in White collar positions and other service sector jobs.

[Cap'n Prowler]

Columbus was one of the the best places in the nation to find a job if you knew anything about computers, until a few years ago when it got hit really hard with the outsourcing of many information jobs and the slump of the dotcom era.

[Walker Evans]

Columbus was originally founded as a capital for the state, so it's younger than Cincy & Cleveland and didn't have the industrial booms that they did being on waterfronts. Columbus was home to things like buggy companies and beer breweries during the industrial revolution, but nothing as heavy as other midwestern rust-belt cities.

So yeah... today Columbus is still growing and is made up of a lot of white collar jobs in both the government and private sector. Lots of Insurance/Banking/Financial type jobs around here too.

www.ColumbusUnderground.com

[swh1972]

Well, there is OSU, so you could say it's a "Football Factory"

[kkaplan]

Well, there is OSU, so you could say it's a "Football Factory"