Experts: It’s not an employer’s job market in Ohio anymore

Clark County to hold job fair next month as some employers saying they’re having to compete for workers now.

Even though Home Depot’s busy season doesn’t usually start until springtime, the home improvement retailer has already started hiring in December to fill job openings in Ohio.

Why has hiring started earlier?

“It’s getting a little tougher to find people. The job market is improving,”said Scott Brown, a staffing specialist Home Depot’s Rapid Deployment Center in Monroe.

According to economic experts and local government agencies that provide job matching services, unemployment has fallen enough that the job market no longer favors the employer.

Unemployment rates in Ohio, Clark and Champaign counties are now sitting near the lowest levels since 2001.

“The tide is now turning to job seekers,” said George Mokrzan, director of economics for Columbus-based Huntington Bancshares Inc. “These unemployment rates have dropped to such a low level, businesses are going to start having a hard time finding the qualified workers that they need.”

“Consumers are going to feel better in terms of job opportunities. There’s going to be some upward pressure in wages,” he said.

Ohio’s unemployment rate shrank from 5.2 percent a year ago to 4.5 percent in November, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. There are fewer people in search of a job and employment is up, but the market isn’t fully healed; fewer Ohioans are also participating in the job market year-over-year, which could be due to retirements, students, changing populations and job seekers who’ve given up finding work.

Last month, about 5.7 million residents statewide were workers or job hunters, down from 5.73 million the year before, according to state statistics.

Between the start of the Great Recession in December 2007 and the most recent estimates available for November, the public and private sectors have added 17,400 jobs to their payrolls in Ohio, according to the state.

Employers have “gotten used to being able to pick and choose in a way they haven’t been able to before,” said Richard Stock, director of the Business Research Group for University of Dayton. “So what’s challenging for companies is pretty exciting for the ordinary working person.”

In Clark County, the Chamber of Greater Springfield is planning to host a job fair Jan. 6 at 31 Gifts, a local employer that announced plans to close its Springfield location earlier this year. Despite that facility’s anticipated closure in January, local officials have said several area companies are looking for workers.

Employers like the Springfield City School District are seeking positions ranging from substitute teachers to custodial staff and bus drivers, and anticipate several positions opening in the next several months, said Stacey Tipler, director of human resources for the district.

“We’re competing with everyone else for that type of job in Clark County,” Tipler said. “Bus drivers are particularly difficult to find.”

The district is also often in need of substitute teachers, in part because many of those employees can only work certain days of the week. That sometimes makes it difficult to find a substitute when needed. Prospective employees need a bachelor’s degree in any subject, but Tipler said the district will work with prospective workers to help them acquire the proper credentials to be a substitute.

Employers planning to attend the job fair next month span a range of industries, including the school district, senior living facilities and staffing agencies. Several manufacturers, including Yamada and Tech II and Rittal Corporation are also expected to attend the Springfield job fair.

The Home Depot distribution center, opened in 2009 near the Ohio 63 and Interstate 75 intersection, supplies stock for more than 100 stores in a multi-state region, Brown said. Plans are to hire about 90 entry-level general warehouse associates in permanent positions from now through late April, he said.

Recently, starting pay was raised to $13 an hour to attract better qualified job candidates. After six months, employees get a raise to $14 an hour, he said.

“It was basically market factors. As the economy’s improving and the pool of workers is getting smaller, we’re competing for a lot of the same people other companies are competing for,” he said.

Wages and salaries across the U.S. grew an estimated 2.1 percent from September 2014 to September 2015, the most recent information available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wage growth is still weak compared to when wages were rising at about 3.3 percent a year at the end of 2007.

“I think there will still be very little pressure on wage growth,” Stock said. “I think where you’re going to experience some pressure on wage growth is down in that $12 to $16 an hour wage.”

“They’ve gotten used to having a very high quality worker for $13 an hour.”

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