New study finds record number of jobs in Ohio, but disparities continue

A "help wanted" sign. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images).

A new analysis of the working world in Ohio credited federal investment and wage improvement with record job numbers in the state, but said barriers still exist for some workers.

Findings from the “State of Working Ohio” report by Policy Matters Ohio showed better recovery compared with previous post-recession times, and the thinktank said the state “has more jobs than ever before, breaking a record that has existed for nearly a quarter-century.”

“This rebound positioned many workers to demand wage increases that outpaced overall inflation,” Policy Matters said in announcing the study. “However, historical disparities in pay and power in the workplace – and higher effective inflation rates for lower-paid workers – meant that progress was constrained.”

The state’s unemployment rate gave Ohio workers “leverage,” researchers Hannah Halbert and Bennett Lovejoy found in the study, saying workers “had their pick of more than one available job rather than vying for too few jobs to go around.”

At the peak of the recession brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 5.3 unemployed Ohioans for every open job, a number that dropped to 0.9 in June 2021. The state maintained low numbers all the way until May 2024, when that number stood again at 0.9.

In the most recent data from the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services, Ohio’s July unemployment rate was at 4.5%, just above the national average of 4.3%.

Jobless claims were trending down, however, in reports between Aug. 11 and Aug. 17 of this year. The state reported 4,945 initial jobless claims, down from 5,388 reported in the week ending Aug. 10.

Continued jobless claims also ticked down in the week ending Aug. 17, from 43,798 the week before to 43,023. The state reported July’s labor force participation rate at 62.3%, just below the U.S. rate of 62.7%.

Ohio restored the jobs lost to the COVID recession in May 2023, according to Policy Matters Ohio. In March 2024, the state posted “the largest job total in the state’s history, restoring the jobs lost to the 2001 dot com recession.”

“Smart, large-scale federal investments have put working people at the center of the ongoing recovery,” said Halbert, lead author and Policy Matters executive director, in a statement.

But the recovery wasn’t the same for everyone in the state.

“Systemic racism, combined with anti-inflation interest rate hikes, negated much of this progress for Black workers,” according to the key findings from Policy Matters’ most recent study.

Those key findings also spotlighted the recent Black unemployment rate: 9.1%, a rate researchers found to be higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Those disparities can prove to have many longterm effects beyond financial strain for people of color. An April study done in part by researchers from The Ohio State University linked job loss in Black Americans to the rate of drug deaths for that population.

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The study published in the American Journal of Public Health used county-level job counts and drug mortality rates to bring perspective to the workforce landscape, particularly for workers of color.

“Research shows that disconnection from the workforce creates collective frustration and hopelessness, family disintegration and community violence and crime, increasing drug use as a refuge from psychological distress,” the researchers stated.

Even one more job for every 100 Black workers could build a “statistically significant moderating effect” on Ohio’s seizure rates specifically for the drug fentanyl, study found.

Policy Matters acknowledged that wage growth in the state has “outpaced inflation,” but high prices on necessities and the median wage haven’t quite allowed enough room for certain workers to live comfortably.

“Ohioans with little or no discretionary income must spend a larger share or even all their money on some of the necessities inflation hit hardest: groceries and housing,” researchers found.

Grocery prices were 21.1% higher from 2021 to 2023 and home values were up 58% between 2018 and 2023, according to Halbert and Lovejoy.

“Workers in the bottom 20% who were paid at or just above the minimum wage, saw the largest percent increase in wages since 2019,” according to Policy Matters’ key findings, “but the top 20% eclipses all other categories of workers, experiencing a 29% rise in average median wage since 1979.”

Ohio’s median wage was $23.95 per hour in 2023, representing “the largest annual increase in the median wage since the data set began in 1979,” the study found.

The median hourly wage for Ohio’s Black workers was $20.11, and the state’s women were paid 81 cents to every dollar their male counterparts received.

“Men’s wages grew faster than women’s, stretching the gender pay gap at the median to just under $5,” researchers stated.

In July , the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio found state residents would need to make at least $20.81 per hour in a full-time job to be able to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment in Ohio. That number represented a 9% increase from 2023.

Halbert recommended federal and state targets in the study that would build a better future for all.

“If policymakers in D.C. and Columbus want to continue building toward shared prosperity, they need to focus on tax and budget policies that make it easier for working people and families to afford the cost of living – and the cost of going to work,” she said in a statement.

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