Staub is up to 16 employees from nine a year ago, but down from 34 in 2007.
Dave Hafenbrack, chief executive of Hafenbrack Marketing, said his manufacturing, health care and technology clients are seeing an upswing. His firm has 28 employees in Dayton, Columbus and Springfield.
“It’s trending the right way,” Hafenbrack said.
While nobody’s complaining, growth does present challenges, such as finding employees with the right skills.
“Nine percent unemployment, and we can’t find the right people,” said Harold Linville, chairman of Innovative Medical Device Solutions, which has 265 employees in Vandalia. Linville has hired at least 10 people in the past year and could use six more, if he could find the right candidates.
“If you had the right skills sets, you could have three or four offers before you left this building,” Linville said.
A number of exhibitors were expanding existing operations or putting new ones in Dayton.
Ben Staub recently created Rapid Direction Inc. as a companion prototyping equipment business to his existing “rapid tooling” business Bastech. Rapid Direction will concentrate on prototyping machines and capabilities.
“We’ve had a really good year so far,” he said.
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