I just released my report on the health of our economy for the First Quarter of 2015, and the results were somewhat mixed.

The local economy posted year-over-year gains in nearly all of the data I measured.  Unemployment dropped again in both Toledo (from 7.7% to 6.5%) and Lucas County (from 7.1% to 6.0%) from March 2014 to March 2015.  Despite another brutal winter, new car sales edged up 2.96% and sales tax collections were up 9.76%.  There were also encouraging gains in a couple of key building permit statistics, which may bode well for the ongoing recovery of our area housing and construction sectors.

On the other hand, the pace of national job growth slowed considerably compared to previous months, and the economy virtually stalled, with first quarter 2015 GDP estimated at 0.2% growth.

If you would like to read a summary of the report, please click here.  The full report can be found here.