I released my quarterly report on the health of our economy earlier today, and while the news at the national level was not good, there were some encouraging signs of growth at the local level.

The local economy showed year-over-year gains in every category of data I measured.  Unemployment dropped again in both Toledo (from 6.3% to 6.2%) and Lucas County (from 5.8% to 5.7%) from March 2015 to March 2016.  New car sales increased by 14.26% and sales tax collections were up 4.92%.  There were also robust gains in all key building permit statistics, which bodes well for the ongoing recovery of our area’s housing and construction sectors.

On the other hand, the country’s economy virtually stalled in the first three months of 2016.  Despite improvement in jobs and wages, first quarter 2016 GDP showed only 0.5% growth.

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