The slowing net outflow corresponds with improvements to Ohio’s job market and unemployment rate, experts said. Job opportunities are one of the primary drivers of domestic migration, and Ohio’s economy has recovered faster than some other Midwestern states.
“Most people will move to where a job is, and move from where a job is not,” said Bill LaFayette, owner of Columbus-based Regionomics, an economic and workforce-strategy firm. “We are attracting people from states where things are worse.”
Still, Ohio continues to lose more people than it gains partly because it has struggled to attract immigrants, who are one of the main contributors to population growth nationwide, experts said.
In 2011, about 206,049 Ohio residents moved to other states, while 191,778 people moved here, according to Census data. The net loss was 14,271 people, down 7 percent from 2010 and 61 percent from 2009. It was the smallest loss in at least six years.
People move for lots of reasons. Sometimes it is to relocate closer to family members. Sometimes it is to attend school. And many older Ohioans pack up and move to states with better climates to retire. Some of the biggest beneficiaries of Ohio’s migration were warm-weather states, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and California.
But among the myriad of motivations for moving or staying put, the decision often boils down to employment opportunities.
Omar Peters, 25, moved here in August 2011 after he graduated with a master’s degree from University at Albany, State University of New York. Peters said he did a nationwide job search, and he received and accepted an offer from the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission.
Peters said job-seekers who are willing and capable of moving for work have a better chance of landing a job.
“Having a willingness to move anywhere definitely helps you get a job in any field,” Peters said.
Mobility fell to historically low levels in 2010 as a result of the recession. The housing crisis meant many homeowners were underwater and were unable to sell their homes. This prevented people from moving to chase economic opportunities.
“One of the things driving migration is housing conditions,” said LaFayette, with Regiononomics.
But mobility is rising again. Last year, more people migrated to and from Ohio than did in 2010. It was the second straight year of increases in people moving into the state.
Ohio is attracting more people from other states because its economy is in better shape than some of its neighbors and Midwestern counterparts, said Mark Salling, research associate with the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.
Ohio gained the most residents from New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Arizona. Ohio has traditionally always gained people from New York. But the gains from the other states could be tied to their weaker job markets.
In 2011, Ohio’s unemployment rate was 8.6 percent, lower than Michigan (10.3 percent), New Jersey (9.3 percent) and Arizona (9.5 percent), according to U.S. Department of Labor data that was not seasonally adjusted.
“Ohio’s economy is doing better than many other states,” Salling said.
Several years ago it looked as though Ohio was on track to lose population for the first time ever, Salling said. He said Ohio’s natural growth rate — the difference between births and deaths — was not keeping pace with outmigration. But Salling said it appears Ohio’s population will continue to grow at a slow rate.
“The more people here, the more people are buying things,” Salling said. “You want to see population growth because it creates a larger consumer base, and that helps businesses.”
But Ohio continues to have uneven economic opportunities, meaning there has been growth in some industries but declines in others, said Jane Dockery, associate director of the Center for Urban and Public Affairs at Wright State University.
Some Ohioans have decided to move to other states with lower unemployment or more job openings in certain sectors.
Ohio lost the most people last year to Kentucky, and that is partly due to the competition between Cincinnati and northern Kentucky, Dockery said.
“It’s a tough fight to some degree given that Kentucky is ranked as the lowest cost-of-business state among all states,” she said, adding the state also ranked fourth in the nation for its cost of living. Its unemployment rate, however, was higher that Ohio’s last year.
North Carolina — which saw the second largest net gain from Ohio last year — ranked fourth in the nation in 2012 for business, according to a CNBC report.
Ohio and other old industrial states have struggled to attract foreign-born residents, who have contributed to growth in other parts of the country, said Theo Majka, sociology professor at the University of Dayton.
Ohio’s foreign-born population increased to 4.1 percent in 2010 from 3 percent in 2000, he said. By comparison, the national foreign-born population increased to 12.4 percent in 2010, he said.
“Ohio has yet to be a significant magnet for recent immigrants,” he said. “This means that outmigration is not yet offset by immigrants locating to Ohio.”
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