How two Ohio counties are working to train and retain their workforce

This conversation is based on a Source Media Properties series called Tomorrow’s Talent: Shaping our Future Workforce. Read the entire series at richlandsource.com or ashlandsource.com.

Ohio’s Department of Development projects the population of Richland County, in north central Ohio, will decrease by nearly 10% between 2020 and 2050. In neighboring Ashland County, the projected drop is even steeper — more than 13%.

Last year, two manufacturing facilities in that area closed, costing local workers their jobs.

But other companies swept them up. In fact, employers in the area are fighting to keep people around.

That’s according to reporting from a trio of Richland and Ashland Source reporters. Katie Ellington Serrao, Grace McCormick and Mariah Thomas have spent months reporting on a project called Tomorrow’s Talent: Shaping Our Future Workforce, a series about the area’s economy and the efforts in place to train and retain a skilled workforce.

Katie Ellington Serrao joined the Ohio Newsroom to talk about what they found.

On the manufacturing economy in north central Ohio

“This series looked at the neighboring Ohio counties of Richland and Ashland. Both of these areas have been heavy manufacturing areas for a really long time. Mansfield, in particular, [was home to] GM, Westinghouse, Tappan, Ohio Brass, too many to name, really. But it's been the main industry here for well over a century, so much so that immigrants came here. People came up from Kentucky. African American workers who were leaving the South during the Great Migration moved here. This was a hub. People knew that there was work here.

“But then, that all started to change a little bit in the mid- to late 20th century. Like a lot of communities, there were some manufacturing losses. There were some big companies that left.

“What a lot of people don't realize is that this region is still a very strong manufacturing area. It's still the biggest industry in our area. But in my experience, there are now a lot more smaller companies, as opposed to a few major companies where everybody works at one of three places in town. But things are changing. Health care is the biggest industry in the state. It's the second biggest in our region right now, and it's probably going to overtake manufacturing eventually.”

On how local manufacturers are attracting workers

“Something a lot of businesses tell us is that they struggle with this perception of yesterday's manufacturing, your grandpa's manufacturing. People imagine these shops as grimy, dirty places with really hard physical labor. But the industry has changed a lot. It's evolved. It's modernized. It's become very technical.

“Manufacturers in our area work really hard to get that message out, to let people know that this isn't your grandpa’s shop job. This is a career that's very high tech, that includes things like 3D printers and AI. Our businesses go to schools. They do career fairs. We have events like Junior Achievement’s Inspire to Hire, where businesses come together with interactive displays. We have a reverse job fair called EmployMEpalooza where students aren’t pitching themselves to businesses, the businesses are pitching themselves to students. And it starts young. I mean, you have middle schoolers touring manufacturing facilities.”

On what young people want in work

“Mariah and I both got to sit down and interview individual teens and groups of teens. But we also created a survey, and I have to give a huge shout out to our local educators who helped distribute it for us. We had more than 1,100 teens answer this survey, and we asked them questions about their perceptions of college and career. We asked, ‘What would an ideal job look like for you?’

“Gen Z clearly values work-life balance. That is the most important thing to them. They want to have a job that allows them to live their life rather than interfering with it or taking up all of their time. They're going to work 40 hours and then they're going to go home and be with their families and do the things that they enjoy. But today's young people also value the same things that people have valued for generations: salary, benefits, positive relationships with a supervisor and coworkers, job security, meaningful work and opportunities to learn and grow.”

On the future of the region’s workforce

“There's a lot of energy in Richland and Ashland counties. There's a lot of young people in government, young people in business, who really care about revitalizing the community. It’s also a relatively affordable place to live. I have a sister who's six years younger than me and swore that she was going to get out of town the moment she graduated. And, lo and behold, she's settling here because once you start crunching numbers and looking at housing costs, you have second thoughts about those things. I said the same thing, and here I am.

“As far as employment goes, the experts are saying medical jobs will take over as the biggest sector. That wouldn't surprise me at all. I think schools are working really hard to broaden awareness of the different pathways that are out there. I hear from educators all the time that not every kid has to go to college. And so I think we'll see more kids going for their associate's degrees, more kids going to Ohio technical centers for skilled jobs like dental assisting, the trades and those sorts of things.

“And I think we're going to see more entrepreneurs. One thing I've heard a lot about Gen Z is they want to work for themselves. They want that flexibility and they don't perceive entrepreneurship as risky as previous generations did. One of the biggest school districts here, Mansfield City, actually launched an entrepreneurship career tech program a couple of years ago. You hear a lot of high schools asking kids, “What's your E?” There's three of them: employment, enlistment, enrollment. But at Mansfield Senior High, there's four. Entrepreneurship is another. And I wouldn't be surprised if you see more of that.”

Read more about the shifting economy in north central Ohio, and efforts in Richland and Ashland counties to train and retain a skilled workforce at richlandsource.com or ashlandsource.com.

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