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Ohio State Fair ‘Midway Mood’ Reflects Consumer Optimism
By: Tom Borgerding | Ohio Public Radio • WOSU
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As a roaming Polka Band plays, the state fair midway is jammed. Tens of thousands of visitors come annually to the Fair and this year they’re more upbeat. Tim and Kathy Miller of Tiro and Kim Covey of Bucyrus are shopping for souvenir Tee-shirts. All three say they’re opening their wallets and pocketbooks a bit more this year.
“Wherever the food takes us,” said Kathy Miller. “Yeah, we have a pocketful of money. His tummy takes us to the food.”
“I took about $80 in cash and my debit card in case it wasn’t enough,” Covey said.
The Midway mood reflects both national and regional economic surveys. The federal reserve bank of Cleveland said banks are lending more money. Retail sales, including sales of new cars are climbing slowly and payrolls are growing. Covey and the Millers said see concrete evidence of economic growth.
“There’s more jobs that came about within the last few years that they kind of cut,” Covey said. We actually welcomed back our B-M-V just a few weeks ago. So getting a B-M-V back in your community is a good thing.”
“There’s jobs coming back. The American people are ready to work. They just need jobs,” said Tim Miller.
“You see them online all the time, you know, when you can go online and look up a job and there’s a lot of listings that weren’t there a few years back,” said Kathy Miller.
Ohio’s unemployment rate has fallen steadily since January from 6.9 percent to 5.5 percent. Joshua Brooker brought his family to the state fair. He started a new job as an auto mechanic last week.
The government’s pushing money back in the economy for a stimulus,” Brooker said. “That’s making a lot of difference.”
Retiree Willie Hall of Columbus is less optimistic. He said he’ll stick to his state fair budget of about 50 bucks. Hall worked for decades for a chemical manufacturer. He said while Ohio is starting to turnaround, it’s worse off economically than some western states.
“Unemployment’s still too high,” he said. “You’ve got to get that down and more productivity before things get better.”
Paul Smith of Dublin makes a finer distinction. He works for a staffing agency and see the Central Ohio job market from the front lines.
“The Blue collar jobs are done but the white collar and high tech and things like that are pretty good,” said Smith.
Smith smiles as he walks toward the Skyride. The Midway is nearly full of visitors and like Smith many are feeling more positive about their financial future.