Trends and Issues Affecting Economic Development in Ohio Counties

Speaker:

Jerold R. Thomas
Northwest District Director & Associate Chair
Ohio State University Extension Service
1219 W. Main Cross Street, Suite 202
Findlay, OH 45840-2420
(419) 442-6106, (419) 422-7595 fax
thomas.69@osu.edu

R. Dale Safrit
Associate Professor
4-H and Youth Development
North Carolina State University
206 Ricks Hall, Box 7606
(919) 515-8469, (919) 515-7812 fax
dale_safrit@ncsu.edu

Little research has been conducted into future trends and issues that may affect the practice of economic development at the county level and how these trends will affect Extension programming and research in community economic development. This paper examines trends and issues at the county level and finds that several trends in five general areas are likely. These include a continued move to a new economy with a focus on increased technology utilization by industries, increased globalization, and increased need for information infrastructure in communities; an increased focus on quality of life factors and sustainable development; continued importance of local economic development strategies; continued importance of workforce development issues and, an increased likelihood of the use of performance measures for financial incentives. Based upon these results, suggestions for Extension programming were discussed.