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These jobs will have the most openings in Ohio this decade

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

The state of Ohio updated its list of projected job openings earlier this year. The projections are through 2028 and also include median hourly wages for those occupations. Read full article.

Site Selection’s Prosperity Cup Ranks Ohio Fourth Most Competitive State in U.S.

Thursday, June 10, 2021

This report is a summary of third-party economic research and perspectives to foster communication with business and economic development stakeholders during the COVID-19 crisis. Key Economic Insights Global: WHO gives Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine Emergency Use Listing; BioNTech to open mRNA manufacturing site in Singapore. U.S.: The April Manufacturing PMI registered 60.7%. Births fell for the sixth consecutive year to the lowest levels since 1979. Ohio: Site Selection magazine ranked Ohio #4 on its Prosperity Cup for the most competitive states in economic development. Read full article.

CEOs Find Ohio a Top 10 Best State for Business For Fourth Consecutive Year

Tuesday, June 08, 2021

This report is a summary of third-party economic research and perspectives to foster communication with business and economic development stakeholders during the COVID-19 crisis. Key Economic Insights Global: Global COVID-19 caseload tops 150M, including over 400,000 new cases in India. U.S.: 2021Q1 GDP grew at an annualized 6.4%. Disposable income, consumer spending, consumer confidence, and durable goods orders all increased. Jobless claims are at a pandemic low. Ohio: Ohio ranked #7 in Chief Executive’s Best & Worst States for Business 2021 Read full article.

8 Strategies For Lowering Your Startup Costs

Thursday, June 03, 2021

Starting a business can cost tens of thousands of dollars, even if you’re working with something small and lean. If you’re trying to launch a business that requires heavy equipment, or if you’re looking to expand quickly, you might need millions. It’s likely that you will face a financial burden upon entering the world of entrepreneurship. Fortunately, there are many strategies you can use to get the funding necessary to cover the expenses, such as working with a VC, an angel investor, or crowdfunding. But you may still need to call upon some creative tactics to reduce the expenses your business i...

Move Over LinkedIn: Chipotle, Shopify And Other Employers Are Flocking To TikTok For Young Talent

Tuesday, June 01, 2021

Chipotle can TikTok with the best of them, by corporate standards anyway. It’s amassed 1.8 million followers—almost as many as rivals McDonald’s (1.1 million) and Taco Bell (861,700) combined—by embracing the kind of snappy, freewheeling content the platform’s young users crave. But between posting videos of teens dancing to songs about guacamole and predicting customers’ orders based on their zodiac signs, company executives spotted a trend. “We've seen a big uptick in Gen-Z looking for their next job on TikTok,” says Tressie Lieberman, Chipotle’s VP of digital and off-premise marketing. The fast-casual chain has, like so many restaurants bouncing back fro...

First Person: Engaging the Workforce with Empathetic Leadership

Friday, May 28, 2021

Area Development’s staff editor Mark Crawford recently asked Ericsson’s Dan Kerber, vice president of digital services business operations for North America — who helps companies improve their financial and operational metrics through improved resource management processes — about his thoughts on leadership, especially the need for “soft skills” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Area Development: What are the most important soft skills needed for leadership today? Kerber: There are many important soft skills, but the three I have found most important are communication, giving effective feedback, and empathy. Good communication skills are essential for conveying information, decisions, and your thought processes to your team. Givin...

New Ohio ad campaign aimed at attracting businesses touts state’s low taxes, sparks online debate

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- What’s the first thing you think of when you think of Ohio? Is it low corporate taxes? Maybe not, but that’s part of what JobsOhio wants business owners in Boston, New York City, Seattle and other higher-cost, major U.S. cities to ponder as they consider whether to move elsewhere. The “Ohio is for Leaders” campaign launched as a pilot program in September, with a full rollout in January. It involves digital ads and social media, but a major component is billboards, with different messaging tailored toward the markets they’re in. For example, for Times Square in New York City...

Ohio State offers Apple app development and coding certificate courses to the public

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

This report is a summary of third-party economic research and perspectives to foster communication with business and economic development stakeholders during the COVID-19 crisis. Key Economic Insights Global: Global consumers are ready to unleash trillions of dollars in excess savings. U.S.: Economists on average expected gross domestic product to expand nearly 4.9% this year. Hiring in the U.S. technology sector continued on its upward trajectory in January. Ohio: Ohio landed four hospitals in the top 50 on Healthgrade’s 2021 America’s Best Hospitals list. Ohio State offers Apple app development and coding certificate courses to the public. Global Insights A new report shows global consumers are ready to unleash trillions of dollars i...

Ohio Can Lead America’s Heartland as More Companies Look to Reshore

Monday, March 29, 2021

For years, companies have been looking for ways to reduce production costs. Building production facilities overseas was commonly perceived as one way to save. However, companies are now seeking to move their facilities back to America and with the effects of COVID-19, reshoring has never been more important. Companies—both domestic and foreign— are investing in America for production and manufacturing. Ohio and the rest of America’s Heartland —the region between the Rockies and Appalachia — is proving to be a prime location for these facilities. Keeping operations in the U.S. provides companies benefits such as protecting intellectual property, shortening supply chains...

On the Rebound

Friday, March 26, 2021

If renewal is a hallmark of economic recovery, then the Midwest is a walking, talking, hard-working advertisement for a U.S. comeback. Here’s a brief tour of redevelopment projects across a region defined by resilience and reinvention. Michigan Two years after Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman Bill Ford announced plans to restore Detroit’s train station, abandoned since 1988, as the center of an innovation hub, the company in November unveiled the site plan for Michigan Central, a 30-acre mobility innovation district centered around the iconic Michigan Central Station and adjacent Book Depository, located at the nexus of four Detroit neighborhoods. The plan envisions ...

Why Would My Community Want To Attract A Remote Workforce

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Why would my community want to attract a REMOTE WORKFORCE? -- To grow your economy, of course! The coronavirus pandemic has affected U.S. workplaces in many ways, including transitioning many employees to remote work. As some businesses begin to welcome employees back to the office, many remote workers, about two-thirds to be exact, are opting to continue working remotely, according to a GALLUP POLL. Attracting remote workers should now be a priority for all economic developers. WHY WOULD MY COMMUNITY WANT TO ATTRACT A REMOTE WORKFORCE? Remote workers can bring many benefits to the communities they choose to live in. Just like any othe...

10 Reasons Why Your Economic Development Website Isn't Attracting Remote Workers

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

These 10 reasons why your economic development website isn't attracting remote workers may be why you're experiencing a lack of success. NEARLY 62% of employees already work remotely at least part of the time, and that number continues to grow as social distancing and COVID safety protocol remain intact. It's of prime concern that economic developers target this audience, and knowing what your audience is looking for is key to developing the best possible website. 10 REASONS WHY YOUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WEBSITE ISN'T ATTRACTING REMOTE WORKERS 1. REMOTE WORKERS AREN'T A TARGET AUDIENCE ON THE WEBPAGE This is the most obvious issue. The economic syste...

Check out these powerful economic development videos

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

If you missed these webinars, you can still check out all the great content we covered in these two fantastic sessions. Enjoy practical solutions and words of wisdom and experience from your colleagues in the industry. Your location's businesses of all sizes need as much support as they can get to survive the pandemic. This is particularly true of small and medium-sized businesses, who generally cannot afford to hire pricey outside consultants. These businesses represent the lifeblood of most regional economies, generating the vast majority of jobs. There are a number of ways economic development organizations, SBDCs and chambers of commerc...

10 Biggest Challenges Small Business Owners Face Right Now

Monday, March 22, 2021

There is not a day that goes by where we don’t talk about the COVID pandemic. It is on the news, in our social feeds and it has infiltrated both our personal and professional worlds. Many businesses have shifted employees to a work-from-home routine; changing everything about how the business day works. We’ve moved from in-person to video. We’ve adapted to multiple family members attempting to be productive, in the same space, at the same time and we’ve shifted from brick-and-mortar to a heavier online presence. In the midst of it all, there have been many success stories. Yet, the challenges are ever apparent...

How To Prepare A Business Plan That Is Useful In Practice

Friday, March 19, 2021

Have you ever seen one of those 50-page business plans that go into detail about every conceivable aspect of a still purely theoretical business? You probably have, since those business plans have been the industry standard for decades. Yet, in a world where words like lean and agile are becoming the new norm for startups, 50-page business plans look a bit out of place, and with a good reason. It’s a fact that creating a plan is very helpful for a new business. A study of more than 10 thousand businesses shows that ventures grow 30% faster on average if they create business plans. However, another study indicates that innovative startup...

Small Business Strikes Back: The Numbers Behind The Next 1000

Thursday, March 18, 2021

In 2020, American venture capitalists invested an unprecedented $156 billion dollars into 12,254 startups, setting records in biotech, pharma and fintech. There were a record 454 initial offerings in the U.S. markets, generating over $167 billion. But pull out a map, and you’ll see a country full of small-scale entrepreneurs who don’t have access to venture funding or Silicon Valley’s unicorn factory. According to the Kauffman Foundation, 89% of U.S. small businesses are either sole proprietorships or have less than 20 full-time employees. The majority (83%) are funded from savings, credit cards, and loans from family or friends, with approximately $80,000 in startu...

Recruiting and Retaining Today’s Manufacturing Workforce

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

AD: How has COVID-19 changed the employee experience in manufacturing, and what facets of this should organizations retain going forward? Zenk: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees have been experiencing a drastically different work environment. Thousands of manufacturers across the U.S. and around the world were deemed essential during the pandemic, and their production lines haven’t stopped. They’ve continued to produce essential goods that the global community relies on — from the food we eat to the clothes we wear and cleaning supplies we use in our homes. As some manufacturers increased output and others reconfigured operations to satisfy urgent demands...

Front Line: Job Creation Through Reshoring

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Back in the 1980s, the term “offshoring” became a business buzzword as more and more U.S. companies moved manufacturing to foreign countries, typically to save on labor costs. In recent years, “reshoring” has been added to the lexicon as companies decide to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., for various reasons.In 2020, reshoring created more U.S. jobs than foreign direct investment (FDI) for the first time in seven years, according to data collected by the Reshoring Initiative. In 2020, U.S. companies reshored nearly 69,000 manufacturing positions, while greenfield investment in the same industries created fewer than 42,000 jobs, according to the Initiative...

The Business Case and Economic Impact of Inclusion

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

The mission of economic developers is to grow jobs and capital investment in our communities. While the distribution of employment and investment in communities around the country has long been a concern of Economic Development Organizations (EDO), the question about “WHO” in the community benefits from any increase in jobs and investment is attracting widespread attention. Economic research shows that since the year 2000, minority groups such as Hispanics and African Americans, have been affected by declining of household incomes, growing inequality in income distribution, higher levels of unemployment, concentrated poverty, and low rates of mobility among classes (IEDC, 2016). Unfortunately...

Pandemic Fuels Data Center Growth

Monday, March 15, 2021

In a year full of turmoil and strife caused by an unexpected pandemic, data centers were quickly recognized for their crucial presence in all lives, for maintaining communication and knowledge during a period of sudden change for humanity. Data center operators and major services held fast throughout the troubled, early days as they were identified as truly mission critical. Companies large and small rapidly scaled up workloads with cloud service providers so employees could access their normal applications; schools and universities moved online as students attended classes remotely; and all people looked to the Internet for entertainment as they stayed hom...

Trends in Office and Industrial Parks

Friday, March 12, 2021

Of course, the big factor impacting office and industrial parks going into 2021 is COVID-19. The pandemic has reduced business production and workforce (through illness, social distancing, and remote working), disrupted the supply chain and cash flow, and brought about significant investments in technology. Across the nation, the demand for suburban office parks is rising as more skilled workers move back to suburbs, due to concerns about housing costs and quality of education — they also feel safer from COVID-19 and the civil unrest that is happening in some larger cities. “The most notable shift is toward lower-intensity spaces, where getting int...

The Future of the Workforce Is a “Better Normal”

Thursday, March 11, 2021

The world as we all knew it changed earlier this year with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seemingly overnight, everything that we used to think was normal had changed, and things that once were deemed impossible for the workplace became the “new normal.” Now, seven months later, most of us have gotten used to this “new normal” — embracing the work-from-home lifestyle, using new technology, wearing masks, social distancing, and connecting virtually. But what comes next? Eventually this pandemic will end, a vaccine will be readily available, and we will attempt to return back to our “normal” lives. Bu...

Why Amazon's Building Binge Has Just Begun

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

The most enduring sounds of the past holiday season may have been those of a van squeaking to a stop at the mailbox, followed by the thud of a box being delivered at the porch. It was an Amazon Christmas. Amazon, which began 2020 as a mere juggernaut, enters 2021 a monolith. Consider the fact that during a year of severe job cuts throughout most of the economy, Amazon hired on average of 1,400 people a day from January to October. The company’s unrivaled pace of hiring doubled during the second half of the year as the full onset of th...

Servicing the Wind

Tuesday, March 09, 2021

Solar and wind farms impress with the stupendous scale of their towers, blades and panels, stretching all the way to the horizon to capture every last drop of sun and breeze. Much of the economic opportunity related to them, however, takes place on smaller scale, in the form of services rendered to those massive displays of power from clusters of manufacturing, maintenance and services firms. It can take the form of individual companies such as Cross Country Infrastructure Services, an Aurora, Colorado–based equipment and construction contractor supplier that announced in November it’s moving into growing wind and solar markets by increasin...

Cathedrals of Talent

Monday, March 08, 2021

Does tech investment follow tech talent or the other way around? It’s actually some of both. The question going forward, says Colin Yasukochi, executive director of the Tech Insights Center at CBRE, is the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic could upset longstanding equations and trends as 2021 unfolds into the post-COVID era. “The pandemic,” says Yasukochi, “could slow the growth of tech talent in some of the major markets if remote work takes hold, if people really do leave town and hiring starts to take place outside of those markets. It’s going to be very, very interesting.” CBRE’s 2020 Scoring Tech Talen...

Social media influence a huge draw for local businesses

Monday, March 08, 2021

When Lena Syed posted a TikTok video in early January featuring Springfield’s own Ironworks Waffle Cafe, she knew it would be popular, but even she didn’t expect the results. As a content creator, Syed says she assumed she’d get 50 thousand to 100 thousand views on her post because of the size of Springfield – compared to other larger markets that might bring anywhere from hundreds of thousands to 1 million plus views on a TikTok video. But, the video of Lena enjoying Ironworks waffles in and around COhatch The Market in Springfield quickly jumped to more than 500 thousand views. As word spread, customers followed an...

DeWine Releases “Investing in Ohio” Budget; More Funding for Broadband, Infrastructure/Site Readiness, Workforce Development & Small Biz Grants

Friday, March 05, 2021

Governor Mike DeWine announced his administration’s executive budget proposal for fiscal years 2022 and 2023. Joined by Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted and Office of Budget and Management Director Kimberly Murnieks, Governor DeWine walked through the highlights of the two year spending plan. Altogether, the budget proposes spending $85.76 billion in FY22 and $85.81 billion in FY23 in federal and state funding. The actual legislative language is not available yet, so while the Governor’s spending plans and priorities and his announced policy initiatives are known, there are still more details and proposals to come. Budget Proposal Highlights Governor DeWine, in touting the two-year spending plan...

How to Host Better Virtual Meetings

Friday, March 05, 2021

If you’re like most professionals, you spent a lot of time in virtual meetings in 2020 and will in 2021 — more than you ever thought possible in, say, 2015. And if you’re like most professionals meeting virtually, you’ve lamented the fact that they could be better. Virtual meetings suffer many of the same drawbacks as traditional meetings, including poor organization, bloated time slots and disinterested attendees. But they also suffer from a batch of problems uniquely their own, including intermittent delays, connectivity issues and the dreaded patterns of ongoing interruptions. And of course, virtual meetings aren’t going anywhere. Many businesses that transitioned t...

Free On-Demand Webinar: How to Safely Reopen Offices & Manage a Hybrid Workforce

Thursday, March 04, 2021

In the wake of coronavirus shutting down offices around the world, remote work has become the new norm. So how do you make workplaces safer post-pandemic? In the 15th episode of our Leadership Lessons series, Comparably CEO Jason Nazar speaks with an expert on the topic, Envoy founder/CEO Larry Gadea, who has facilitated 1 million safe returns to the office. With a suite of products that redefine how to welcome visitors and employees back to the office, the workplace platform includes tools for check-in registrations, booking rooms/desks, managing deliveries, and capacity limits for social distancing. Envoy is used in more tha...

Lauren Kelley shares her passion for, dedication to equality through Leaders of Change

Thursday, March 04, 2021

Born and raised in Springfield, Lauren Kelley is rooted in the city and wants to see it thrive. The founder of Leaders of Change, Kelley wants to be a part of a collaborative effort to improve racial equality throughout the community. And she’s using the platform created through her organization to help build the bridges to make that happen. A 2007 graduate of the former North High School, Kelley started working for the Clark County Juvenile Court in 2011 in the Clerk’s Office. When she had the opportunity to become a corrections officer in the Juvenile Detention Center, she was excited for the chance, and she’...

5 Tips for a Thriving Company Culture

Wednesday, March 03, 2021

Given the uncertainty businesses face in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, company leaders are looking at every phase of their operation to determine ways they can improve. Workplace culture is one area commanding attention. As the virus caused business limitations and forced many companies to go fully remote in 2020, workplace culture was challenged in new ways. This was a reminder to company leaders to make this a priority, forcing them to find ways to strengthen it in the new year, says Mark McClain, CEO and co-founder of SailPoint and the ForbesBooks author of Joy and Success at Work: Building Organizations that Don’t Suck (th...

Wright State cuts are part of plan to evolve

Wednesday, March 03, 2021

Plans to cut 113 faculty positions at Wright State University over the next several years are meant to keep the university on par with a problem Ohio’s higher education institutions are facing - dropping enrollment. Wright State President Susan Edwards recommended the faculty positions be cut due to declining student enrollment that has occurred over the past five years and is projected to continue at least two more years. The university says it is cutting faculty to align with projected enrollment declines. Greg Lawson, a Research Fellow with the Buckeye Institute, an independent think tank that works on higher education in Ohio...

4 Keys To Startup Success In Crowded Markets

Tuesday, March 02, 2021

Many would-be entrepreneurs spend a lot of time trying to think of the next big thing. Most end up spinning their wheels and never getting a new venture off the ground. It’s hard to come up with an original business idea. However, if you look at some of the most successful businesses in the world, you'll find that they aren't based on new ideas at all. The truth is that you don't have to be original to start a successful business. Many startups succeed in crowded markets by doing their homework and executing their business plans. Nerd Wallet, for example, succeeded amon...

The states Americans headed to the most in 2020, according to U-Haul

Tuesday, March 02, 2021

Work from home orders and job losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic prompted many Americans to pack up and head to other states in 2020. The ones who rented one-way U-Hauls went to states like Tennessee, Texas, Florida and Ohio, according to a new report by the company. U-Haul’s annual migration trends report calculates how many one-way U-Haul vehicles enter a state versus how many leave it each calendar year. For the 2020 report, the data were complied from more than 2 million one-way U-Haul rental customer transactions. In 2020, Tennessee claimed the top spot for the most one-way U-Haul arrivals versus departures for the first tim...

Challenges of Moving Manufacturing Out of China

Monday, March 01, 2021

There is plenty of manufacturing capability around the world for consumer goods, PPE, testing equipment, medical devices, consumer goods, and other industrial products. So why are companies reshoring their manufacturing operations now? The Tax Reform Act of 2017 helped. The 301 China penalty tariffs gave a little push. But the global pandemic made executives acutely aware of their global supply chain risks and vulnerabilities and provided an opportunity to rethink their global manufacturing strategy. New strategies typically include at least some capacity for manufacturing and sourcing critical goods in America. Pharmaceutical manufacturers were among the first to consider reshoring in an attemp...

Why Ohio Could Be the No. 1 Destination for Veteran Jobs and Businesses

Monday, March 01, 2021

Move over, Texas: Ohio is coming in hot. The state is looking to attract the next generation of military families, entrepreneurs and veterans ready to join the civilian workforce. In a series of moves that decentralize economic aid and community support, JobsOhio wants veterans to come back to the heart of it all. In 2011, Ohio privatized its economic development department into a nonprofit corporation: JobsOhio. Using the power of capitalism, it has since spurred job creation and business development in nine sectors. The organization is now ready to begin attracting employers and talent in a 10th sector: military installations and the federal government. Unlik...

In Focus: Construction Tech Adoption Speeds Up

Friday, February 26, 2021

Faced with the urgent need to both enable remote work and safeguard job-site activity, U.S. construction firms significantly ramped up tech investments in 2020, condensing three years worth of adoption into a single year. According to JLL’s State of Construction Tech report, mature technologies — including digital collaboration platforms, virtual scanning tools, and safety-focused wearables — were forecast to see strong growth in 2020, thanks to proven value and low barriers to adoption. But once the pandemic struck, these tools proved more than nice-to-have — they’ve become a veritable lifeline for companies of all sizes to keep projects alive through this publi...

President Johnson delivers first State of the University address

Friday, February 26, 2021

In her first State of the University address as the 16th president of The Ohio State University, Kristina M. Johnson today announced a commitment to hire hundreds of new faculty members and invest more than $750 million in new cutting-edge research, and promised a debt-free undergraduate education in a decade. Johnson started her tenure during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, following a summer of protests against racial injustice and through a contentious political campaign season. While highlighting the challenging times, she also pointed toward a more optimistic future. “The Ohio State University was created to spread opportunity more widely,” she said. “And if eve...

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine Outlines $1 B Program to Combat COVID Economy

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Governor Mike DeWine, as part of his state operating budget kickoff, announced a broad and impressive $1 B Investing in Ohio program designed to impact the economic downturn created by the COVID 19 virus. Ohio like many other states around the country have experienced reduced revenues, and economic activity due to the pandemic and the governor is focused on provided resources and support to help spur economic activity while supporting small businesses in the state. The proposed $1 billion program would provide $460 million to support businesses to help cover costs to keep their doors open, including businesses in the entertainment...

“Made in America” Executive Order to Affect International Companies and FDI

Thursday, February 25, 2021

On January 25th, President Biden issued one of his first Executive Orders, making changes to the “Made in America” program. The order left many with questions about how it would affect trade and international investment into the U.S. About the Executive Order The Executive Order is designed to strengthen the requirements for federal procurement in the U.S., allowing more of a preference for domestic products and supply chains (e.g., components) of domestic products. The order creates a new “Made in America” office to administer the new processes, which will be housed under the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) and will have its own director. Rea...

The Business Case and Economic Impact of Inclusion

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

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