Jobs that pay better are gaining ground; Health care, education among emerging fields
BYLINE: Tom Breckenridge, Plain Dealer Reporter
Many of the once-powerful factories in Northeast Ohio still sit silent, their burly workers gone years ago. But a future built on higher-paying jobs like health care and education is emerging.
The latest evidence will be released today: a study concluding that higher-paying jobs actually are growing faster than lower-paying ones.
The work from the Team NEO economic development group underscores what had begun to appear around town in bits: A new medical facility one day. The spread of tech companies into downtown. The infusion of money for startup companies.
Northeast Ohio still has twice as many jobs that pay below average as above, but the Team NEO study adds to a sense that the region may have begun to move from the rust belt years to the age of technology and innovation.
"The fact is our job growth has been pretty modest . . . but the data is showing a steady trend toward higher-paying work," said Tom Waltermire, chief executive of Team NEO, the economic development group releasing the study.
The analysis looked at job growth or loss in 22 occupations since 1992, in a 16-county region. Those occupations employ 1.88 million workers, a 7.3 percent increase over job levels in 1992, according to the report.
About two-thirds - 1,250,223 - are employed in jobs paying less than the region's average salary of $37,817. Two of those occupations - food preparation and service, and office and administrative support - have added 66,000 jobs since 1992.
Meanwhile, production jobs, the blue-collar kind that once thrived in the region, shrank by 50,000, Team NEO reports. And manufacturing may no longer be the path to a comfortable middle-class life. Production jobs now pay less than the regional average, according to the report.
On the flip side, two occupations demanding higher skills - health-care practitioners, and education, training and library workers - added some 28,000 jobs in the past 15 years. Those jobs pay well above the region's average wage.
Overall, jobs paying more than the average have grown 10 percent since 1992, compared with 6 percent growth for those paying less, according to the report.
The numbers were no surprise to National City economist Richard DeKaser.
Twenty years ago, average compensation in the Cleveland area ranked above the national average, he said. Now, it ranks below, due mainly to the loss of manufacturing jobs that required relatively little education, he said.
The New Economy demands higher skills. And team NEO's report underscores the widely held belief that "education pays," DeKaser said.
Business leaders are demanding better job-training strategies statewide.
"The conventional wisdom I hear . . . is that we are sinking huge amounts of money with limited payoff in our traditional work force programs," Waltermire said.
A state official confirmed that business leaders want job training to be the top priority of the Ohio Department of Development.
The department is directing millions of dollars into several new programs, including the Ohio Workforce Guarantee.
The $5 million program offers up to $3,000 per employee, and up to $750,000 per business, for job training, said Lisa Patt-McDaniel, director of the Work Force and Talent Division in the Department of Development.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: tbreckenridge@plaind.com, 216-999-4695