The Dayton area has now added jobs for five months straight, and the job gains this year already nearly match the full-year payroll growth seen in 2022 and 2021.
“We have had two years of record-setting economic projects for the Dayton region, with companies committing to more than 10,200 jobs in 2021 and 2022,” said Julie Sullivan, executive vice president of regional development with the Dayton Development Coalition. “Filling those positions can take two to three years, as companies ramp up operations. ... I think this tells us our local economy is strong, growing and offering compelling employment opportunities.”
Employment in the Dayton metro area increased by 1,600 workers in July (+0.4%), according to preliminary survey data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The data is subject to revision and potentially could be revised downward or upward. The metro area consists of Montgomery, Greene and Miami counties.
About 394,100 people worked in the three-county region in July, which was the highest employment level since April 2007, the preliminary data show.
Payrolls in the Dayton region last month finally reached — and exceeded — pre-pandemic levels.
Back in February 2020, before concerns about the coronavirus took hold, 392,600 people had jobs in the Dayton area.
But local employment plunged after that during lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, falling to 331,700 employed workers in April 2020.
The region has seen steady job growth since then, but hiring has been particularly good in 2023.
The Dayton area already has created 7,200 new jobs this year, through July, after gaining 7,900 jobs in all of 2022 and 7,400 in all of 2021. Hiring has now increased locally in 18 of the last 22 months.
In the last 30 years, the Dayton community has transitioned from being heavily focused on the automotive industry to investing in more diverse industries, said Amanda Byers, director of talent and policy with the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce.
“Both international companies like P&G, Henny Penny and Fuyao, along with local businesses, like Mile 2, Wright-Patt Credit Union and Dayton Children’s have diversified the portfolio of businesses in our region,” she said. “The business community has continued to hire top talent right here and we anticipate that job growth will not slow down.”
Columbus and Springfield were first metro areas in the state to regain all of the jobs they lost during COVID, with both accomplishing this feat in December 2021.
Cincinnati got there in April 2022, and the state of Ohio saw its job numbers climb back to pre-COVID levels in May of this year.
Ohio has been on a hiring tear, and the state in July had the highest number of jobs in its history. The state also set another new record low for its unemployment rate.
Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Lima, Mansfield, Toledo and Youngstown remain in a COVID jobs hole.
The local job market certainly could continue to improve, considering many employers are still advertising job openings.
Amazon just opened a massive plant in Union, near the Dayton International Airport, that already employs hundreds of workers and the facility is expected to employ about 2,000 workers when fully operational.
Ohio has been in the midst of a strong jobs recovery since Gov. Mike DeWine’s stay-at-home order lifted, said Michael Shields, senior researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, a liberal-leaning research organization.
The COVID recession differed from past recessions in that it was not caused by underlying economic fundamentals, he said. Many businesses shuttered by the public health order were able to quickly resume operations once it was lifted.
Shields also said the recovery is a victory for “good public policy” because lawmakers responded to the economic crisis with sufficient fiscal stimulus.
“Ohio got our jobs back in less than half the time it took to recover from the Great Recession,” he said.
Sullivan, with the Dayton Development Coalition, said it’s been a long, difficult climb to get back to this point, but many people and organizations worked hard to rebuild the regional economy.
“Our biggest challenge right now is workforce and ensuring companies can find people to fill their job openings,” she said. “It means we need more than numbers. We need people with the right skills and experience levels, and we need people who want to call Dayton home and build a career here.”
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