There are 169 counties in the Fourth District, and 68 of these counties are located within the District’s 16 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). An MSA is an area with a large population core, combined with adjacent communities that have a high degree of social and economic integration with that core.

Not surprisingly, the District's four most populous metropolitan areas also include the District's four most populous cities. Interestingly, while the Columbus MSA is the third most populous metropolitan area in the District, Columbus itself is the District's most populous city, with over three-quarters of a million people. The only large cities that grew much in the last decade were Columbus and Lexington. They were the only cities in the District with more than 100,000 people to show significant population growth from 2000 to 2010.

Fourth District Population by City (thousands)

City	2000	2010	2000-2010 Percent Change
Columbus	715.9	787.0	9.9
Cleveland	476.5	396.8	-16.7
Pittsburgh	333.7	305.7	-8.3
Cincinnati	331.2	296.9	-10.3
Toledo	313.6	287.2	-8.4
Lexington-Fayette	261.1	295.8	13.2
Akron	216.8	199.1	-8.1
Dayton	165.8	141.5	-14.6
Erie	103.6	101.7	-1.8

Average annual increases in population since 1970 have also been consistently higher for the United States than for the District. Annual population growth has averaged about 1.1 percent for the United States over this period, whereas annual increases in the District have averaged 0.1 percent.

Nominal personal incomes in the District have also tended to grow more slowly than in the United States as a whole. Since 1970, aggregate nominal income growth in the District has averaged approximately 6 percent annually; by contrast, nominal income in the United States rose roughly 7 percent through the same period. The result has been an increase in income of about 9.5 times for the District since 1970 versus an increase of about 15 times for the nation.

Health care has now surpassed manufacturing has the largest employing industry within our District. Districtwide, those employed in the health-care industry make up about 16 percent of the workforce, whereas the comparable figure for the country is about 15 percent. The share of employment the District devotes to manufacturing (about 13 percent) is still greater than the attendant shares for the United States (roughly 11 percent).

The District's Top Ten Fortune 500 Companies

Company	2011 Rank	City	Revenues (Billions of U.S. Dollars)
Cardinal Health	19	Dublin, OH	98.6
Kroger	25	Cincinnati, OH	82.1
Proctor & Gamble	26	Cincinnati, OH	79.6
Macy's	107	Cincinnati, OH	25
Nationwide	127	Columbus, OH	20.2
Goodyear Tire & Rubber	139	Akron, OH	18.8
United States Steel	148	Pittsburgh, PA	17.3
PNC Financial Services Group	151	Pittsburgh, PA	17
Progressive	164	Mayfield Village, OH	14.9
American Electric Power	169	Columbus, OH	14.4

With combined assets totaling more than $500 billion, four of the nation's largest 50 bank holding company headquarters are located within the District.

Assets of Major Bank Holding Companies

Company	City	Assets (Billions of Dollars)
PNC Financial Services Group	Pittsburgh, PA	263.2
Fifth Third Bancorp	Cincinnati, OH	108.5
Keycorp	Cleveland, OH	84.7
Huntington Bancshares	Columbus, OH	52.7

Source: Call Reports

September 6, 2012
Kyle Fee and Nelson Oliver

As of March 2012 the unemployment rate for the Fourth District stood at 7.6 percent. Typically, the Fourth District unemployment rate tends to be higher than that of the nation, but it now rests below the national rate of 8.2 percent. Declines in unemployment throughout most of 2011 were constrained due to various supply chain shocks and overall economic uncertainly. However, unseasonably warm winter months helped to strengthen employment gains throughout late 2011 and early 2012.

Unemployment rates across Fourth District counties ranges from a low of 4.6 percent (Mercer County, Ohio) to a high of 16.8 percent (Magoffin, Kentucky), with the median county unemployment rate at 8.3 percent. In the three months since December 2011, the unemployment rate has steadily declined in the majority of Fourth District counties, and the median unemployment rate has fallen by 0.4 percentage points. Despite considerable declines in overall Fourth District unemployment, 21 percent of Fourth District counties (mainly rural Kentucky) have actually seen unemployment rates increase since December 2011.

County-level patterns reflect statewide unemployment rates. For example, as of March 2012, the unemployment rate was 7.5 percent in Ohio, 8.6 percent in Kentucky, 7.5 percent in Pennsylvania, and 6.8 percent in West Virginia. Compared to March 2011, all states within the District experienced declines in unemployment levels ranging from 0.5 percent to 1.4 percent. There are significant differences in unemployment rates across counties in the Fourth District. Of the 169 counties that make up the District, 80 had an unemployment rate at or below the national rate. Conversely, 23 percent of the District’s counties have a double-digit unemployment rate, which is a strong improvement from the 41 percent recorded this time last year. This is an even more dramatic improvement from the peak of over 77 percent in October 2009. Geographically, unemployment remains the highest in remote areas of Ohio and Kentucky, while rural Pennsylvania has maintained a stronger labor market.

Since September 2011 both the national and Forth District unemployment levels began to notably decline and have fallen by 0.8 and 0.9 percentage points respectively. Changes in county level unemployment rates range from an increase of 1.6 percent to a decline of 3.4 percent. Over the past six months all but seven Fourth District counties, all in Kentucky, have seen an improvement in employment levels.

Since September 2011, both the national and Fourth District unemployment levels have fallen—nationally by 0.8 percentage points and District-wide by 0.9 percentage points. Changes in county-level unemployment rates over this time period range from an increase of 1.6 percent (Letcher County, Kentucky) to a decline of 3.4 percent (Rockcastle County, Kentucky). Interestingly, the general pattern of a high unemployment rate in September 2011 equating to a larger fall in the unemployment rate between September 2011 and March 2012 is only clearly evident in Ohio counties. The pattern is actually reversed in the District’s small number of West Virginia counties. Also striking is that, over the past six months, all but seven Fourth District counties—all of which are within southeastern Kentucky (Letcher, Harlan, Perry, Morgan, Magoffin, Leslie and Knott)—have seen lower unemployment rates.