RIGHT TIME RIGHT EXPOSITION/The battleground state of Ohio proued an appropriate host for FABTECH

摘要

Ohio was a pretty popular place in late October. President George W. Bush was in Youngstown and Findlay Oct. 27 and Westlake and Dayton Oct. 28. His opponent for the White House, Sen. John Kerry, appeared in rallies in Toledo and Columbus Oct. 28. Besides tie up traffic and keep local reporters busy, the candidates' visits to Ohio put U.S. manufacturing in the spotlight for the week leading up to the election. For each news story filed about a campaign appearance, a line describing the state's slow economic rebound-"Ohio, which has lost more than 250,000 jobs since 2000 ..."- certainly was included. For the record, the Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland puts the job loss at 264,504 since 2000. Additionally, the state's unemployment was 6 percent in early November, slightly larger than the nation's overall unemployment rate of 5.4 percent.