Staying with the story
The Springfield News-Sun will continue to provide unmatched coverage of jobs and the economy in Clark and Champaign counties. For this story, the paper reviewed state job reports and spoke to business leaders and prospective employees to put into context what is happening in the local job market.
By the numbers:
Unemployment rates since January 2014
Clark County
6.7 percent – January
6.2 percent – February
5.6 percent – March
4.8 percent – April
Champaign County
6.1 percent – January
5.7 percent – February
5.2 percent – March
4.5 percent – April
Hundreds of prospective employees filed into a Springfield job fair Tuesday, the same day that a state report showed Clark County’s unemployment rate dropped to the lowest level in a more than decade.
Clark County’s unemployment rate dipped to 4.8 percent in April. Ohio’s unemployment rate also fell to 5.7 percent last month, the lowest rate since February 2008, according to state and federal job reports released earlier this month.
Many of the jobs added, though, have been in lower-wage industries such as leisure and hospitality, which added about 300 jobs in the Springfield area. Retail businesses also added about 100 jobs.
Still, many of those who attended the job fair Tuesday at the Hollenbeck Bayley Center said they were optimistic about their prospects for finding work.
Jarrod Owens, of Springfield, graduated from ITT Technical Institute after majoring in graphic design. Since then, he has found a handful of jobs but none have turned into permanent positions.
“Since I got out of college it’s just been off and on, hit and miss,” he said.
Owens was interested in many of the positions available Tuesday.
“Everyday expenses don’t go away just because you’re unemployed,” Owens said.
The job fair was hosted by the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce and OhioMeansJobs. More than 40 companies attended the event, including manufacturers, health care businesses and distribution firms, said Amy Donahoe, director of hiring and employer services at the chamber.
Liz Baldridge, of Springfield, recently graduated from Milone University in Canton. She she’s been looking for work since February and has had some success landing interviews. Baldridge has turned in about 100 resumes but wanted to find the right entry-level job to start her career in human resources.
“I don’t want to be a job-hopper, I guess” she said. “I just want to start out with a company I really like.”
The local economy has slowly recovered from the Great Recession, Donahoe said, leading to more demand from area employers looking to fill vacant positions. Nearly all of the companies who attended were local firms.
Pratt Industries in Springfield had several positions to fill, including shipping dispatchers, forklift drivers and supervisors. The recession hit area manufacturing firms hard, but those that survived are seeing an uptick in business, said Dea Mihaly, a human relations generalist at Pratt.
The company makes packaging for clients such as Amazon and Walmart, and has had steady business, she said.
“We had the big crash back a few years ago and manufacturing was hurt really bad but now we’re here trying to find good employees,” Mihaly said.
Fred Gagne, plant manager at Heroux Devtek, said his company was looking for a handful of positions, such as machinists and manufacturing engineers. The company recently landed a major agreement with Boeing to produce landing gear for Boeing’s 777 and 777X.
While some employees were just starting out, others were looking for new work after a long career. Rob Traynor said he recently lost his job after working for more than 20 years for a newspaper in London, Ohio.
He’s only been searching for a few weeks, but said he was looking forward to finding a new career path.
“This is kind of my first time diving in and seeing what’s out there in a big way,” Traynor said.
Figures from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services shows the unemployment rate fell in both Clark and Champaign counties between March and April this year. The monthly reports are based on a survey of households in Ohio and provide a basic snapshot of the state’s employment situation, said Ben Johnson, a spokesman for the Ohio DJFS.
The size of Clark County’s workforce also dipped from 68,800 workers in March to 68,600 in April. But Clark County added about 400 jobs.
Clark County has added about 1,500 jobs compared to the same time last year, the report says.
Job figures in Clark and Champaign counties mirror what is happening statewide, Johnson said. The number of people in the workforce actively working or looking for work declined overall, but Ohio also added 12,600 non-farm jobs in a variety of sectors last month.
“A shrinking labor force is a factor,” Johnson said of the state’s unemployment rate. “The labor force did get smaller in April and that contributed to the decline but the state is adding jobs and in April that drove the unemployment rate lower.”
The size of Champaign County’s workforce remained flat at 19,800 jobs from month to month, according to the state survey. But the county also added about 100 jobs.
The survey doesn’t explain why the workforce might be shrinking, Johnson said. But it could be the result of several factors, including a discouraged workforce, retirements, or residents who quit looking for work to start a family or return to school.
Staff Writer Randy Tucker contributed to this report.
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