Labor & the local baseline
What this economy is before the project — the denominator every jobs claim divides by.
Every jobs promise is a numerator. This chapter is the denominator. It reports what Van Wert County, Ohio's economy is before the project, from federal series that will still publish after it. A real impact study starts from this baseline, and so should every claim made against it.
The five largest private sectors
| Sector | Jobs | Location quotient |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing | 3,061 | 3.14 · exports |
| Health Care & Social Assistance | 1,545 | 0.96 · imports |
| Retail Trade | 1,179 | 1.00 |
| Accommodation & Food Services | 869 | 0.82 · imports |
| Wholesale Trade | 864 | 1.87 · exports |
Government employment adds ~ 1,640 jobs across 3 ownership slices (QCEW federal/state/local) — the slice a private-only sector mix cannot show.
- Any jobs claim reads against this baseline as claim vs. denominator — the study never computes a jobs multiplier.
The full sector mix, the multi-decade employment trend, wages, and the consumer-energy series are in the labor-baseline annex.
The record behind this chapter
What this chapter stands on: the records it reads, the inputs its modeled figures rest
on, and the reference data behind its baselines — the same pages the record screens
serve, not a second copy. A figure the record does not support stays [open] and links nothing.
- Economic baseline (BLS QCEW / Census)Reference dataset