The area has experienced healthy growth in recent years in jobs that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics backgrounds and local schools are training more workers to meet the need.

Among its peers in the Great Lakes region, including metros in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the Dayton area ranked No. 8 for growth in STEM-related jobs from 2009 to 2011, according to a new report from the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, a nonprofit think tank in Indianapolis.

The Dayton area added 700 STEM-related jobs that required at least two years of post-secondary education over the past two years, outperforming much larger metro areas, such as Cleveland and Milwaukee, Wis., which added 458 and 512 STEM jobs, respectively, Sagamore found.

Although those jobs could be in any industry, STEM growth in Dayton and the Great Lakes region in general is largely the result of a pronounced rebound in manufacturing, said Mark Schill, vice president of the economic development firm, Praxis Strategy Group, and co-author of the Sagamore report.

“Roughly two-thirds of STEM employment is actually in the manufacturing industry, so places like Dayton that saw the biggest manufacturing declines are starting to see the biggest resurgence in STEM jobs,” Schill said. “It still hasn’t made up for some of the losses in the most recent recession, but some of the places that took the worst hits are doing the best now.”

Despite the recent growth, there still aren’t enough science, technology, engineering and mathematics degree holders to fill local workforce needs, said Angelia Erbaugh, president of the Dayton Region Manufacturers Association.

“It’s still tough to find skilled workers, and we haven’t experienced any relief in that, yet,” Erbaugh said.

But the region’s economy has benefited from being in a better position than many other areas to accommodate those employers because of its strong history in manufacturing, Schill explained.

“A lot of that STEM acumen is still present there in the workforce, and that’s still a tremendous asset for Dayton,” he said. “Certainly, there’s still a shortage of STEM (workers). But in the long run, the places that have those higher concentrations of STEM workers are places where employers are going to find a deeper labor pool.”

Demand for STEM workers is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years as new technologies continue to be substituted for manual labor, requiring more factory workers with engineering and computer backgrounds.

Statewide, more than 10 percent of total job growth in Ohio over the next decade will be in STEM-related occupations, based on an analysis of job-forecasts from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Nationally, the number of STEM jobs is expected to increase by 17 percent from 2010 and 2020, according to a recent report from U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, which highlighted the demand for individuals with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in STEM subjects.

While Ohio still trails the nation as a whole in terms of the number of degree holders, the numbers in STEM fields are beginning to bounce back, said Jim Petro, who leads Ohio’s public university system as chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents.

Petro noted that the number of students statewide graduating with STEM degrees has climbed 10 percent in the past year alone to 31,670. And that number is up 24 percent from 2007.

Local schools have seen even faster growth over the past five years.

The number of STEM graduates at Sinclair Community College, for example, rose 36 percent to 848 from 2007 to 2011, and the University of Cincinnati also saw an increase in STEM degrees by 36 percent to 3,466 over the same period.

Petro attributes much of the growth in STEM degrees to a growing awareness among students about the surging demand for those skills, particularly in manufacturing.

“If you’ve been to a manufacturing facility lately, you realize that there is enormous technology doing the work,” he said. “And STEM disciplines are much more ‘hyped’ now because the college or university can say here’s where the jobs are.”

Petro predicts that as the number of STEM graduates increases so will the number of employers in the local area.

“For a long time, Ohio’s shortfall in baccalaureate degree recipients in the state has hurt us in terms of business relocation,’’ he said. “Businesses are well aware of the state’s ranking in terms of its position among the other states ... five or six points below the national average. We need to really build that up dramatically, and that’s become our initiative here.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2437 or rtucker @DaytonDailyNews.com.