Job Outlook: Here’s the highest demand for Ohio jobs in next four years

Jobs like nurses, physician aides, information security analysts and research analysts will grow by 78,007 positions from 2018 to 2023, according to the report, which ranks jobs in three wage tiers — high, middle and low.

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Meanwhile, growth in the middle and lower tiers will be somewhat slower, with the middle tier expected to grow by 38,642 jobs by 2023 and low-wage jobs expected to grow by more than 59,000 jobs.

Health care workers have been in high demand in the Dayton area for the past decade as the region’s population grows older.

“There’s always going to be a need for it,” said Billie Lucente-Baker, system director of talent acquisition for Premier Health, the Dayton area’s largest hospital system. “And consequently, there is always going to be a need for qualified staff.”

She sees the need for the right health care professionals quite readily. Fidelity Home Health Care is part of Premier, and Fidelity is the largest home health care agency by volume in Montgomery County, according to a Premier spokesman.

It can be difficult to find the right job candidates if you don’t use the right tactics, Lucente-Baker said. Health care is a competitive arena, and organizations must be “creative” in how they recruit, she said.

OHIO JOBS

Those tactics include recruiting both within and outside the Dayton area, offering training to established employees who have proven themselves and making sure the community knows of the need for workers.

“That in and of itself can attract qualified candidates, if they know what your mission is, what your core values are and how they align with what their values might be,” Lucente-Baker said.

Physician assistants will be the fastest growing field in Ohio among high-wage jobs, according to the ranking, growing 17 percent from the 3,178 in the field last year to an expected 3,723 jobs in 2023.

Among middle-class jobs, the report projected strong demand for pipe-layers, plumbers, pipe-fitters, assistants in those areas and other skilled trades.

Pipe-layers are ranked first among the fastest growing middle-wage jobs, with 1,073 of those positions in Ohio in 2018, and 1,342 expected in 2023, according to the ranking. That’s an increase of about 25 percent.

For too long, there has been a shortage of qualified candidates in skilled trades — plumbing, electric work, metalworking, HVAC work and other vocations — that Tom Maher, owner of the Dayton-area Manpower staffing franchis, calls “amazing.”

“What they’re saying is true, especially in the skilled trades area,” Maher said.

Greg McAfee, owner of McAfee Heating & Air in Kettering, says many companies no longer seek experienced candidates. Some are looking simply for people willing to learn.

McAfee recently invited inexperienced candidates in a LinkedIn post, offering to pay for training for those willing to learn. That drew 15 to 25 resumes, including from someone who has been in finance for 15 years and was looking for a career change.

“We hire for attitude, train for skills,” McAfee said. “That’s what we’re looking for.”

McAfee said he has trade school graduates who started working for him at $10 an hour who, three years later, have nearly tripled their hourly wage.

“It’s a great career,” McAfee said. “It doesn’t go away. Everybody needs heating. Everybody needs cooling.”

For decades, students have been steered away from those fields, some observers say. But that’s beginning to change, Maher believes. “I think we’re starting to see schools talk to kids about the opportunities that are available in skilled trades.”

Students who spend four years working instead of four years in college can find themselves making $30,000 to $60,000 a year, with no debt, Maher said.