Vredeveld quoted in Journal News article "Research shows jobs most available in health care, manufacturing, hospitality industries"

By Chelsey Levingston, Staff Writer

Health care and social services outgrew manufacturing to be the largest industry by jobs in the region since 2001, according to a workforce network.

The three largest industry sectors in the region, including Butler and Warren counties, are health care and social services; manufacturing; and accommodation and food services; according to research done for Employers First Regional Workforce Network.

The information is important because it gives workers today a chance to adapt to changes and have basic good communication and creativity skills because these industries could be completely different in the future, said Ross Meyer, executive director of Greater Cincinnati Workforce Network.

Health care and social services grew 21 percent to 138,197 jobs in 2009, according to Employers First. Manufacturing shrank 23 percent, but still had the second most jobs in 2009 of 136,410. Accommodation and food services, mostly jobs for hotels and restaurants, grew 8 percent to 90,620 jobs.

The fastest growing industry was management of companies and enterprises, or corporate headquarter functions, which grew 35 percent from 2001 to 2009 in the region, according to Employers First. The management sector had 40,162 jobs in 2009.

“The industries where there are significant numbers of jobs are industries that increasingly require extra training,” Meyer said. “It means that people are going to have to retool and get the kind of training that’s relevant to these industries.”

Employers First is a public-private partnership formed this year to align and coordinate workforce services for employers in the region. Greater Cincinnati Workforce Network is one of the partners. The research released earlier this year encompasses the entire Tri-State region, including Butler, Warren, Hamilton and Clermont counties and parts of Indiana and Northern Kentucky.

In Butler County, the largest employers this year are Miami University of approximately 3,400 people; Cincinnati Financial Corp. of approximately 2,900 people; and AK Steel Corp. of approximately 2,400 people; according to Butler County Department of Development.

In comparison, Atrium Medical Center in Middletown, Cincinnati Children’s Liberty Campus, Fort Hamilton Hospital, McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford, Mercy Hospital Fairfield and West Chester Hospital combined have nearly 5,900 employees, according to numbers provided by the hospitals.

The changes in employment by industry, such as health care becoming larger than manufacturing industry and manufacturing declining, are national trends. Health care is growing due to an overall aging population, said George Vredeveld, the director of University of Cincinnati’s Economics Center.

The nation as a whole has seen manufacturing employment decrease dramatically since over the past 15 years, Vredeveld said. But the Cincinnati region has seen smaller declines and in the past year and a half more robust growth than the rest of the nation in manufacturing jobs, due to an industry cluster in manufacturing built over time that has special skills and many suppliers and buyers located here, he said.

Hotels and restaurants have a large number of jobs in most cities, he said.

He said what people need to realize are these industries include a large number of jobs. For example, an accountant today might have more opportunities than 10 years ago as an accountant for a hospital.

“I think the thing to realize in manufacturing is these jobs have become much more technical. I think if you look at health care, they become more technical,” he said.

Ten years from now, the industries could be a completely different picture. Vredeveld said five years ago it was completely different and with technology driving dramatic changes in industry, the changes don’t appear to be slowing down soon.

“One thing we can be almost certain about is that over the next 10 years, the job market is going to be much different than it is today. So it’s really important that these people when they go out in the job market have the flexibility to change as the job market changes,” said Vredeveld.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.