When COVID hit in early 2020, tens of thousands of local workers were laid off, and it has taken more than three years for the local economy to finally be on the verge of regaining all of the jobs that were lost.
About 377,100 people were employed last month in the Dayton metro region, which includes Montgomery, Miami and Greene counties, according to not seasonally adjusted data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Local employment increased about 3.5% between May 2022 and May 2023, which was the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year job gains, Ohio Labor Market Information data show.
Many workers exited the labor force during the pandemic and did not quickly return.
The labor force is the number of people who have jobs plus the number of unemployed people who are actively looking for work.
But the Dayton metro area’s labor force increased last month by 2.5% from a year ago, and there were about 390,600 people working or looking for work.
Until December of 2022, the Dayton region’s labor force had declined year-over-year for 29 out of the previous 32 months.
But the labor force has now grown for six straight months, compared to the same periods a year earlier, and the labor pool is the largest it has been in more than two and a half year.
Workers who had been sidelined during COVID are deciding to get back into the job market because of rising wages, said Hederman, with the Buckeye Institute, which is a conservative-leaning think tank.
“The market is doing what we’d expect: Wages are going up because businesses are competing with each other to find more workers and the unemployment rate is low,” he said.
Some data indicate that people are leaving low-paying jobs to take better ones, which is a good thing, said Michael Shields, senior researcher with liberal-leaning Policy Matters Ohio, a research organization.
Ohio’s leisure and hospitality industry, where waiters and waitresses work, is still down more than 14,000 jobs compared to pre-COVID times, he said. But some industries have recouped the COVID losses, while others have surpassed pre-COVID peaks.
“The median pay for a waiter or waitress in Ohio was $11.25 per hour last year,” Shields said. “If restaurants want those workers back, they can pay them more.”
Some local employers have struggled to fill their job openings because there is so much competition for workers.
The Brunch Club in Dayton recently closed down temporarily because of staffing issues. Child care centers and preschools have had trouble finding staff.
Some businesses and organizations are having to reduce hours or scale back operations, and lower-wage jobs may be especially tough to fill given the high demand for employees.
“This ‘tight’ labor market favors workers,” Shields said. “I think that’s a good thing, because it’s going to help restore some balance to the labor market, where employers have been able to hold wages down despite decades of productivity growth that have delivered record profits.”
Flexible work arrangements, expanded quality childcare options and increased access to training and education could result in more people joining the labor force, some researchers said.
About the Author
