Two days before Ohio officials announced that Bayer Pharmaceutical would be investing $2.2 billion in a drug manufacturing campus in New Albany — bringing 600 new, high paying permanent jobs — Springfield truck factory Navistar laid off about 1,400 workers.
The two events, yielding a net loss of some 800 jobs, is being framed by an economist who studies the Midwest and Ohio as a case study in jobs disparity between big and small cities, raising the questions of "Is Ohio the best state to do business?" or is its success coming from small urban pockets of the state?
"Columbus is being very successful in creating a community where people who could do these jobs would want to live in," said said Mike Hicks, director of the Virginia-based Shenandoah
University's school of business, who does regular economic forecasts of Ohio. Conversely, areas like Springfield that are suffering economically are "creating places where the types of workers that they need are not willing to live in."
Springfield officials did not immediately respond to Dispatch requests for comment.
CNBC recently named Ohio as the nation's top state to do business. But the economic engine that drives Ohio's growth and development is centered in big cities, increasingly Columbus, Hicks said.
"Every state makes those claims," Hicks said, referring to a state's bragging rights when business success often occurs in concentrated areas. "They're either missing the nuance or unwilling to say it," Hicks said of DeWine and other state officials.
"The governor could be saying, if he were a little more courageous, that Ohio could be a place that is attracting the top employers of the world, like we did 50 or 60 years ago. But what we're missing is a lot more places like Columbus and its surrounding neighborhoods."
DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney called Hicks' comments misinformed, saying "the governor's goal is to spread prosperity around the state."
"This is a very myopic view that shows little knowledge of the state," Tierney said pointing to Sherwin-Williams opening its worldwide headquarters in Cleveland this year and other job projects.
Springfield in July announced that Virginia-based Electra would be building its hybrid electric fixed wing aircraft here, adding some 2,000 jobs, for example.
"As the governor has said, Columbus is hot. But to say it isn't happening elsewhere is excluding other things," Tierney said. "There is no doubt that central Ohio is hot, but the idea that the rest of the state is lagging is just wrong."
For smaller cities to prosper, Hicks says quality schools, housing and safe neighborhoods should be reinforced, noting that this could take a generation or more to produce results.
Hicks calls Columbus a "superpower area," with high-tech, high-paying job opportunities that attract employees who live in quality suburbs. That isn't always the case in smaller communities.
"When you're producing something like a pharmaceutical or semi-conductor, your labor costs are a fraction of the overall value of what you're producing. And it really pays to have the highest value employees. Because one mistake can cost a day's worth of production and tens of millions of dollars."
"And the Columbus area is absolutely a magnet for those type of people," Hicks said. "It's just sucking people into that part of the state from other areas."
Cincinnati and Cleveland also are thriving, just not as aggressively as Columbus, he added.
About 70% of Ohioans live in its seven largest cities, with three of four Ohioans employed there. They are churning out 90% of the state's gross domestic product, according to the Ohio Mayors Alliance.
Anduril Industries' drone manufacturing in northern Pickaway County, Intel's computer chip foundry (under delayed construction in New Albany) and major expansions of area hospitals, John Glenn International Airport and numerous data centers are examples, Hicks said.
Anduril's impact will be felt statewide, he said, describing the promise of 4,000 new jobs by 2035. Anduril's "unique qualities and ability to support the project in Central Ohio, and more specifically Pickaway County, create the ideal environment for success," JobsOhio recently said of the company.
The flip side of prosperity
Chillicothe, Bowling Green, Springfield or Toledo are a different story, Hicks said.
"The types of workers that modern factories need are no longer there in big numbers because the demands of modern factories have changed."
Pixelle paper mill did announce earlier this year that paper will once again be produced in Chillicothe. New owners U.S. Paper Mill Company said they are hiring new employees for paper production, prioritizing some of the 800 former employees who lost their jobs when the Pixelle plant shut down in 2025. Even further south, in Piketon, there are plans to invest up to a half-trillion-dollars in a massive data center complex with its own power generation that is expected to bring 2,500 permanent jobs plus multiples of that in construction workers.
"They're certainly not competing with Bayer or Intel or other types of activities," said Hicks.
Springfield has attracted people who are willing to work in jobs with far more mundane tasks, he added, noting a large Haitian community.
Many of the laid off Navistar workers are expected to be rehired in six to 12 months by Roshel, a Canadian manufacturer of armored vehicles, which is buying the Springfield operation.
Is prosperity trickling down?
Columbus created more than 20,000 jobs in 2024 to 2025, more than any other part of Ohio, with only four metropolitan areas adding jobs statewide, said Heather Smith, working wages researcher at Policy Matters.
Two thirds of Ohio's metropolitan areas lost jobs during this time.
"The job growth has really been concentrated in Columbus and Cincinnati for the past few years ... while cities like Canton and Springfield are losing jobs by comparison," Smith said.
A lot of the policies that make Ohio the best place to do business also may make it hard for Ohio families to get by, she said.
Repealing some business taxes, including sales tax exemptions for data centers leave the state without the revenue to provide services such as childcare, enhance Medicaid expansion or to have a solvent unemployment compensation system, Smith said. "We've been kind of degrading our tax revenue for decades."
"Springfield is under a lot of stress right now to say the least," said Smith. "I'm sure that this closing now is just another kick you while you're down situation for the community.
"There are people who need action to be taken now. We can't wait generations for a shift in culture."
Growth and development reporter Dean Narciso can be reached at dnarciso@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: New Albany investment versus Springfield layoffs. Is Ohio's growth equitable?
