That’s according to an analysis by The Dayton Daily News, which says the statistic is a sign that the state’s economy is recovering more quickly than that most of the country.

Per-capita personal income includes all earnings such as wages, dividends, interest income and rents. In Ohio, it rose by 1.7 percent to $39,289 between 2011 and 2012. That was a larger increase than all but two other states.

Experts say incomes in Ohio continue to benefit from the revival of the manufacturing industry and the emergence of the oil and gas sector. But, they say, future prosperity depends on diversifying Ohio’s industrial base.

But there are still questions about how much money is involved and where it came from.

JobsOhio’s annual report claims the entity assisted 277 companies that committed to creating or retaining 75,612 jobs in Ohio.

The Columbus Dispatch reports JobsOhio officials signed a contract for $10.27 million in July 2011 on its first day of existence, and then signed two contract extensions for a total of $3 million.

Those figures aren’t correct, says Laura Jones with JobsOhio. She says the initial contract was with the Ohio Business Development Coalition, a state marketing program that goes back to Gov. Bob Taft, and it was for around $5 million.

Jones says when OBDC became part of JobsOhio, contracts had to be signed again – and that looks like more money came in.

“That 10.2, I think, is inaccurate. That’s an aggregate number so that includes what was awarded in June of 2010 and doesn’t count for it having been extended. Most of that was already spent by the time JobsOhio was created,” Jones said.

The Dispatch story also says JobsOhio reports bringing in almost $7 million in donations.

A document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in January shows American Electric Power donated 2 million dollars to JobsOhio, but that’s the only disclosure so far to JobsOhio.

Jones says $7 million is the total that was donated to the OBDC, but says she can’t disclose where that money came from.

The company would claim that donation on their 990. We also will be, when we file our 990 very soon here, in the next month or so, those private donations – while the names will not be associated with those, there will be total amounts for those donations.

The legislature had also authorized a million dollars for JobsOhio’s startup costs, which JobsOhio had said was needed because of lawsuits filed over the constitutionality of the entity.

Jones says now that the liquor profits transfer has been authorized, the funding for JobsOhio is in place, and there won’t be any more donations. But the Ohio Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in the JobsOhio constitutionality case.

What Jones calls “misunderstandings” aren’t surprising to Dale Butland with Innovation Ohio, a liberal leaning think tank. He says JobsOhio’s annual report actually raised more questions than it answered.

We still don’t know how much public money has been spent. We still don’t know how JobsOhio calculates its return on investment, which means also have no idea whether the investments that JobsOhio has made have been good or bad. And we still don’t know, in the end, how many jobs weren’t going to have, or how many jobs have actually been created.

Jones says JobsOhio has been very transparent and accountable and has filed all the paperwork it’s required to. But Butland disagrees on the transparency issue.

“Many of the people on the board, we know, are big contributors of Gov. Kasich,” Jones says.

“And this money can be spent willy-nilly anywhere around the state, perhaps in support of the Governor’s campaign, his re-election campaign. But I think that none of these questions are going to be answered until there’s some more transparency here.”

Documents from JobsOhio show half of the 26 salaries paid by the organization were at least $100,000, with JobsOhio’s president and CIO making $225,000.

Jones says those figures were accurate a few months ago, but that there are only 21 people working for JobsOhio now. Butland notes that the top salary is more that John Kasich makes as governor.

The Dayton Daily News reports that Ohio’s level of self-employment is one of the lowest in the nation.

It’s declined partly because traditional self-employment industries such as construction and real estate were devastated by the recession and have been slow to come back.

Also, some economists say the state’s economy and job growth is concentrated in fields that are not ideal for self-employment.

Of the more than 5.5 million people employed in Ohio, only about 5.6 percent of the workers are self-employed. That’s a lower rate than all but eight other states.

“I’m doing some Garganelli all’Amatriciana…with some tomato sauces, tomato-onion, and pancetta. And Pecorino Romano cheese on top. It’s pretty nice and light.”

On this busy afternoon, even Lockkeepers’ General Manager, Brian Woerhman is in the kitchen, handing off plates of spiky green salad to wait staff as they come and go from the dining hall.

Business is brisk, and Woehrman is thinking about expanding his staff of about 75.

We do plan on taking on some new staff members through the next year. We project a 10-percent increase in sales, so things look pretty good.

Lockkeepers turns 20 this year. Woehrman says that benchmark’s worth celebrating, given the tumbles his restaurant took in recent years.

“The in-house catering and private dining, from 2008 to 2009, really took a big dip and had to be rebuilt. I think it was cut in half, and then grew back to its former level,” Woehrman says.

Woehrman says several cost-saving measures kept Lockeepers afloat. New and replacement hires were infrequent, and existing staff were given more responsibilities.

Energy usage was cut back, and the restaurant itself was rebranded as a largely fine – yet more casual and affordable—dining experience. Jeans and t-shirts are as much the dress code here as are gowns and neckties.

Woehrman says the worst thing a struggling restaurant can do, is to raise prices when sales are low. Jarrod Clabaugh, of the Ohio Restaurant Association, agrees.

Restaurants always look at every opportunity they can to deflect costs, before passing that cost on to the consumer.

Clabaugh says for those Ohio restaurants that scrimped and scaled back to survive the recession, brighter days for both sales and hiring are ahead.

The sales figures are expected to increase 3.6 percent in Ohio for 2013. That means that we’re looking at 17-point-4 billion dollars, which means more dining out, which means more people to feed those folks.

One restaurant that’s already grown—despite the recession and its aftershock—is MELT Bar and Grilled, where the grilled cheese sandwich reigns supreme. Since 2006, it’s opened four locations in the Greater Cleveland area – employing 350 people. This year, it’ll open a restaurant in Columbus, adding at least 60 more.

Owner Matt Fish says novelty and affordability have drawn steady, hungry crowds.

Every single person that I’ve come across has some sort of story about a grilled cheese sandwich. Everybody can relate to it. And that’s the reason I think that we were able to survive through the rough economic times, is that we provide comfort.

That’s Jerald Benovitz’s take. He’s from Parma, but often travels up to Melt’s Lakewood location. He says he and the others at his table have been coping with tight economic times lately, but are devoted patrons.

“We’ve scaled back a little bit but what we try to do is go out. You know, not quite for fast food, but not the five-star location…but something more in-between where we can afford it and do it more, than not.”

Larger chain restaurants have weathered the recession better than individual operations.

Case in point: the Bob Evans chain of more than 500 eateries nationwide.

Joe Eulberg is Executive Vice-President of Human Resources. He says in the last few years, the Columbus-based company greatly expanded its take-out options. It also developed online ordering services for smart phones, and kept improving and promoting its grocery line.

And for the year ahead, he says the company plans to renovate – or “refresh” their existing Bob Evans locations.

Every time we do a restaurant refresh, the sales go up and sales going up means more people being hired. So usually that’s about 5-10 people more per restaurant we add, for every one we do. And we plan that we add for every one we do, and we plan to have all of the restaurants in Ohio refreshed within the next 12 months.

2013 won’t be ALL gravy for the food service industry. High prices of fuel and drought-ravaged commodities like corn and grain will play their part, and the economy is still wavering enough to curb some people’s appetite for eating out.

But overall gains have been steady, and many restaurant operators think they’ve got the expertise now to meet challenges.

In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Fishman told share holders he was leaving the Columbus-based discount retailer next year. Today the Wall Street Journal reports the SEC is looking into a $10 million stock trade Fishman made a month before announcing company share prices were dropping.

The Journal reports had he sold his shares after the announcement, Fishman would have made $2.4 million less.

An SEC spokesperson would not confirm or deny the investigation. Big Lots did not immediately return phone calls, but have told other media they are unaware of an SEC investigation.

The International Council of Shopping Centers says retail sales dropped more than three percent for the week ended December 1st.

Gordon Gough at the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants says Ohio consumers are balancing holiday spending while facing some economic headwinds.

“Consumers over the last few years have been paying down debt, and although incomes in Ohio have fallen a little bit over the last few years, consumers have paid down quite a bit of debt, as so that’s opened up some discretionary income for them to spend.”

Gough says the council expects consumers to spend four percent more this holiday season compared to last year.

Kimberly Ullner founded her specialty food company, 1-2-3 Gluten Free, eight years ago. She’s since seen interest in gluten-free products flourish, and her products are now found in most of the U.S. Now the Orange resident says she’s ready to take her products global

“The European Union, Central and South America, and the Middle East,” Ullner says.

Of course, there’s a lot involved in shifting to the export market Labels need to be translated into foreign languages and converted to different measuring systems; there’s special packing and shipping arrangements to be figured out; and meetings with international clients can become diplomatic fiascoes if certain cultural norms aren’t followed. But Ullner says if she can make it overseas, it’ll pay off.

The diversification with being in the foreign markets is very helpful, it allows us as a company to ride through tougher economic times here.

“If a company has about 30 percent of their revenue from export, they’re basically recession proof,” says Nate Ward, director of the International Trade Assistance Center at Cleveland State University.

He says with 70 percent of the world’s purchasing power outside the U.S., there’s ample territory for companies to tap into.

“Exports still just account for under 14 percent of our Gross Domestic Product,” Ward says.

“Germany by contrast – the largest economy in Europe – 40 percent of their GDP is in exports. So there’s lot of opportunities left. It’s a matter of determination, and focus.”

Money and guidance don’t hurt either.

Ward says his staff can help companies learn about financing, grants, and other nuts and bolts of moving into exports. And Susan Whitney, Office Director for Cleveland’s U-S Exports Assistance Center, says her staff works directly with 200 regional companies a year, to find potential partners overseas.

Hearing her talk about being shrewd and choosy, it almost sounds like dating.

A lot of time companies will go with the first company that talks to them, and eventually when their sales grow and they realize that they should be selling more, that may actually limit the amount that they can sell in that country. Then they have the problem of trying to get out of a business relationship.

Michael Knoblauch has learned much in exporting his product to China. He’s CEO of DVUV, a Cleveland company that applies specialized, colored coatings to wooden furniture and similar products.

Today, his workers are finishing teachers’ desks.

“The heat bonds it, the electro-static applies the powder…”

Knoblauch says exports make up between 10 to 20 percent of DVUV’s annual volume. He says he first began exporting to China almost a decade ago, after deciding it provided a great opportunity for his company to grow. His immediate advice for companies? Invest heavily in quality control, when shipping your goods.

`Cause what you don’t want to have, is your product arrive and be deemed unqualified…

And by “unqualified”, Knoblauch means damaged.

“..now you’ve got significant business problem because your customer doesn’t have product to use to sell to their customers,” Knoblauch says.

Other advice? Research your potential markets.

Ron Swinko is CEO of Jet Wastewater Treatment. Its business fluctuates along with home construction. After joining the company in 2010, Swinko pushed hard for exports, which now account for one-fourth of Jet’s revenue.

His company has sold wastewater treatment systems in the U.S., but looked into Mexico, Latin America, and Africa when domestic housing took hits in 2009 and 2010.

“We saw international sales and exporting as a way to not only offset that, but also take some of the seasonality out of our business. Housing construction in the U.S. tends to be seasonal, in the developing countries the seasonality doesn’t really exist there, because weather allows for construction year-round.”

Swinko also advises companies to assess the competition, as many consumers in foreign countries like to buy locally.

As for helping economic growth, a recent report by the Brookings Institution shows exports created nearly 600-thousand jobs in the U.S. between 2009 and 2010, with roughly a fourth of those in Ohio.

The central Ohio job market continues to outperform most of the state.

According to state figures released Tuesday, the unemployment rate for central Ohio fell from 6.0 percent in August to 5.7 percent last month, the lowest level in more than more than four years and more than a full percent below the current statewide average.

Delaware county led the region with a 4.8 percent jobless rate last month. Marion county had the worst unemployment rate in central Ohio at 7.1 percent.

Statewide, Pike county had the state’s highest jobless rate of 11.5 percent. Western Ohio’s Mercer county had the best unemployment rate at 3.9 percent, followed by Holmes and Auglaize counties.

Although it’s unclear if the 7.2 per cent jobless rate will be heading up or down in the months ahead, a project manager for a Columbus jobs center sees hopeful signs that the economy is improving. Statehouse correspondent Bill Cohen talked with her and with some of the unemployed. Click the play button above to hear his report.

The latest figures from the Department of Job and Family Services show a June jobless rate of 7.2 percent, that’s down from 7.3 percent in May.

Unemployment rolls shrank by about 7,000 in June, while employers reported adding 18,400 jobs last month.