Manpower’s national survey of about 11,500 employers shows that nationally hiring pace will remain steady through the first quarter, but regional and industry forecasts are mixed.
“Compared to Q4 2019 when the net employment outlook was 19%, Dayton, Ohio, MSA employers have reported stronger hiring pace,” said Tom Maher of Manpower. “When looking at year-over-year expectations, hiring intentions have remained stable from when the outlook was 20%.”
Health care continues to be one of the fastest growing fields in Ohio. For Ohio, seven of the top 10 fastest job growth sectors feature health care, according to the Ohio Bureau of Labor Market Information: home health care services, outpatient care centers, community care facilities for the elderly, ambulatory health care services, medical diagnosis laboratories, residential mental health facilities, and tech consulting services.
John Palmer, spokesman for the Ohio Hospital Association, said the leading services for hospitals with job needs are mental health, cyber-security and telehealth.
“There are three important factors driving the need for growth of health care workforce: more insured patients, the aging baby boomer population and the integration of more technology with medical care,” Palmer said.
Registered nurses remain one of the most in-demand jobs in the state, according to Ohio’s Office of Workforce Transformation and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The state's newly updated In-Demand Jobs List reported that there are a little under 130,000 RNs employed in the state, an estimated 8,848 job openings and a projected annual growth rate of 1,839 new RN jobs.
This data is part of the state’s recent effort to track “in-demand jobs,” defined as one that pays at least 80% of the state median wage ($14.10 or more per hour), and has an annual growth in the number of jobs higher than the statewide average of 36 or annual job openings greater than 584.
Some of the other most in-demand jobs in southwest Ohio on the list include software developers, market research analysts, construction workers, medical assistants and manual laborers and material movers.
For the construction industry, about 73% percent of employers in the Midwest plan to increase their headcount in 2020, the Association of of General Contractors said in their 2020 outlook for the Midwest. Hiring prospects remain relatively stable in comparison with the previous quarter and this time one year ago.
“Contractors are very optimistic about demand for construction in 2020,” said Stephen Sandherr, the association’s chief executive officer. “At the same time, many construction executives are troubled by labor shortages and the impacts those shortages are having on operations, training and safety programs, and bottom lines.”
About 83% of business surveyed were having a hard time filling some or all of their positions, while 6% were having no difficulty and 11% had no openings.
About 47% said it will continue to be hard to hire and 25% said it wil become harder to hire in 2020. Just under half said they increased base pay rates from 2018 to 2019 because of difficulty filling positions.
The Dayton Development Coalition reported there were 3,687 jobs committed in fiscal year 2016 to the Dayton region, 2,078 in 2017, 3,880 in 2018, and those jobs are typically created over several years.
“The last couple of years for us have been very fruitful in terms of companies doing expansion projects, and new opportunities coming to the region,” said Julie Sullivan, executive vice president of the DDC,
Sullivan said the companies they are working with have created jobs in a range of industries and around the region, which speaks to their efforts to promote a diverse economy. In 2019, about 20% jobs were committed in tech, 20% in advance manufacturing, another 30% in logistics and distribution.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base hit its highest employment count in decades earlier this year, with more than 30,000 employees. Sullivan said she expects to continue to see more job growth at the base, including as NASIC expands and as the coming F-35 program brings hundreds of jobs to the area.
She said she expects the tech sector to also continue its growth trend in the Dayton area, pointing to growing companies like Tyler Technologies, Radiance Technologies, and Mile 2.
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