ASHLAND — Ashland’s economic development office is small. One person is in charge of the entire office.
Cameo Carey runs the office. She spends much of her time pursuing grants and tax incentives for the city and Ashland County. She is also working on branching out and helping out with other projects.
But Mr. Carey and Ashland Mayor Matt Miller, especially as they seek to present Ashland as an “affordable, safe and fun” place for people to start a family, have decided to use their limited resources for economic development. He said that it would be difficult to allocate money to
Formation of the North Central Workforce Alliance
The idea for the North Central Workforce Alliance began 10 years ago due to the city’s limitations in addressing such an important topic.
“This was our response to helping develop a plan to develop a local workforce for businesses in our region,” Miller said.
NCWA began with three goals.
- Reach out to young people before they decide on a career.
- To contact teachers, career guidance counselors, and school administrators to inform them about available jobs in the area.
- To reach out to parents and help them understand what opportunities are available to their children, whether it’s college or employment.
“We’re trying to instill in local youth that there is opportunity in our community,” Miller said.
The North Central Workforce Alliance, led by Irv Howard, is a regional organization comprised of executives from a variety of sectors. Most of the activity is done out of Ashland.
It is as follows:
- An economy lunch will be held.
- We will hold a career fair.
- A teacher boot camp is held to expose teachers to the industry.
- We have developed a program to introduce students to possible careers at a young age.
We are currently working hard to plan to hold Junior Achievement in Ashland in May.
Carey has been working on these efforts since returning to the economic development agency late last year.
In Miller’s estimation, NCWA’s success will be measured by enrollment records at the Ashland County West Holmes Career Center.
This year’s ACWHCC had over 500 participants. That’s more than a 48% increase from just five years ago, according to previous research. ashland sauce report.
Although organizations have improved in helping students understand their options in the field, filling job openings and developing a strong, high-quality workforce remains a top priority.
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted cited the workforce as one of the state’s biggest challenges for the future.
“We have a lot of work to do and we need people to take it on, which means we need all our able-bodied players to come off the bench and participate in the game,” Husted said.
Ashland’s local business leaders like Miller, Carey and Howard agree.
Several recent economic events in the region have focused on the workforce. In other words, they’re asking questions about how to address the challenges looming in the future of north-central Ohio.
There are a myriad of factors that make it difficult to have a full workforce.
These include an aging population, which leaves a lack of young people to fill workforce gaps. There is a lack of housing options. And manufacturing jobs are changing or disappearing.
manufacturing industry movements
Manufacturing has long dominated the job market in north central Ohio.
The Greater Ohio Policy Center’s November 2022 report defines Ohio as a “legacy state.”
The policy center notes in the report that, like traditional cities, Ohio “rose to prominence in the early to mid-1900s centered on its manufacturing economy, but experienced significant growth in population and manufacturing in the mid-to-late 20th century.” “We have experienced a significant decline,” he said. ”
Despite these losses statewide, manufacturing remains the top industry in Ashland, Knox, and Richland counties. The industry accounts for 21.6%, 21%, and 18.6% of countywide employment, respectively, according to 2021 measurements from the Ohio Labor Market Information Data.
Ashland and Richland counties are also part of the Smart Manufacturing and Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster.
The U.S. Small Business Administration defines innovation clusters as “networks of businesses and other organizations that collaborate to maximize their strengths and resources and enable greater competition.”
Richland County is a world leader in pump manufacturing. It also serves as a leading manufacturer of metal fabrication and plastic parts.
Ashland is the home of Pentair and the U.S. headquarters of Novatex, a leading manufacturer of children’s silicone products.
Manufacturing has also adapted to the technological advances of the 21st century.
Employees at manufacturers like Lloyd Rebar and Hess Industries operate and program robots that help companies increase productivity.
Still, the region has also experienced manufacturing losses.
Several businesses that were once large employers in Richland and Ashland counties have closed in the past two decades, including the General Motors Stamping Plant in Ontario and Mansfield Plumbing Products in Perrysville.
historical background
When General Motors announced in June 2009 that it would close its Ontario factory within the next year, 3,000 people lost their jobs. Some moved across the country to other factories, while others found new industries locally.
Richland County’s unemployment rate reached 14.5% in January 2010 during the Great Recession.
It wasn’t until November 2013 that the countywide rate fell to pre-GM closure levels. It took another six months to recover to pre-recession levels of 6.5% in spring 2015.
Ashland County’s unemployment rate followed a similar trend to Richland County between 2010 and 2015, during the recession.
In 2023, two major manufacturing companies closed in Ashland County.
In early 2023, Pioneer National Latex announced it would close its Ashland plant by the end of the year. As of February 2023, the company had already begun shutting down production lines and cutting 80 jobs.
Mansfield Plumbing Products will close its Perrysville plant at the end of 2023, impacting hundreds of employees. said the Ashland Regional Economic Development Team. ashland sauce Many of the employees who lost their jobs when Pioneer National Latex and Mansfield Plumbing closed have found new jobs.
But the job market is changing.
For example, health care is the second largest industry in Richland, Ashland, and Knox counties. It surpassed manufacturing to become the state’s largest employer.
As of 2021, 16.5% of Ohio jobs were in health care and 13% were in manufacturing.
The changes are also reflected locally.
In Ashland County, for example, the annual Economic Development Breakfast highlighted Charles River Research Institute as the area’s largest employer. The company is in the biomedical research industry.
Ashland Mayor Miller said there are still several manufacturers in the area. They tend to employ fewer than 100 workers. Meanwhile, Charles His River has hundreds of employees.
Miller points out that new manufacturers are taking over manufacturing companies that may have shut down, and products are changing.
“We haven’t really lost a major employer or industry,” Miller said. “It just evolved into something else.”
Miller said he is grateful for Charles River’s presence in Ashland. The company offers jobs to people of various skill levels.
Team Northeast Ohio (Team NEO), an economic development agency representing 18 counties including Richland and Ashland counties, suggests Ashland County has the potential to become a 3D printing corridor for healthcare and additive manufacturing .
workforce woes
As the job market changes and some manufacturing businesses suffer losses, many companies are also struggling to fill job openings.
Clint Knight, workforce development director for the Richland Regional Chamber, said some potential employers are concerned about the county’s workforce participation rate.
Participation rate is measured as the total number of people aged 16 and older who are employed or looking for work.
These measurements do not include military personnel, people in prisons or institutions, college students, stay-at-home moms, or full-time domestic workers. This rate also excludes retirees and volunteer workers from measuring labor force participation.
Participation rates also exclude people who participate in unpaid training programs that are not sponsored by their employer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“If you’re a company looking to start a business, employee participation rates can impact whether you come here or not,” Knight said.
“We’ve had companies come to town and look at our buildings and infrastructure, but ultimately they say they don’t want to be here if only 56% of the people who are eligible to work are actually working. I have been told.”
Still, there are limits to labor force participation rates. Team NEO research director Sondra Paliboda said this percentage does not include active military, college students or veterans.
“We have an older population living in our community, and that can impact us,” she says.
“Participation rates include unemployed people, but to be classified as unemployed you must still be looking for work or have taken some action within the past four weeks.
“Otherwise, you would be classified as not in the labor force. If you do seasonal or gig work, you are usually looking for work and clients, but that can also affect your rates. There is a sex.”
Paliboda said most data sources, such as the BLS, focus on data on workers between the ages of 16 and 65, and that older adults who continue to work are included in their participation rates.
County name | labor participation rate |
huron county | 61.9% |
wayne county | 62.2% |
crawford county | 60.2% |
knox county | 59.9% |
richland county | 56.7% |
ashland county | 60.7% |
Marion County | 54.2% |
Morrow County | 62.7% |
Future factors
Paliboda said it’s important to ensure high school graduates have the skills they need to get a job. Their preparedness for the future serves as a precursor to labor force participation rates.
“Ensuring that young people’s skills are reflected in local economies is critical,” she said. “They might go to school and get a job, but if it doesn’t align with what they want to do, they might look for job opportunities elsewhere.”
According to the 2020 Census, the population of Ohio as a whole increased. However, the Greater Ohio Policy Center emphasized that these gains occurred primarily in the state’s urban areas.
Rural areas of Ohio, such as Ashland and Richland counties, actually experienced population declines during that period.
Pariboda said declining birth rates could become a problem for labor force participation within the next decade, or sooner.
“There was one sentence from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that stood out to me: population growth is the single most determining factor in workforce growth,” she said.
“I think the reality that we’re going to see over the next few years is that older workers are more likely to stay in the workforce longer than in the past.”