Labor Day report finds median wage decline
Posted August 27, 2012 in Press Releases
Executive summaryWorkers leave labor force, manufacturing jobs rebound, public jobs lag
Between 2010 and 2011, Ohio’s inflation-adjusted median wage declined by 45 cents an hour to $15.20. Real wage loss over the 2000s in Ohio was among the highest in the country (-$1.33 between 2000 and 2011), second only to Michigan (-$1.36). These are 
some of the findings of the State of Working Ohio 2012, a comprehensive review of the Ohio labor market by Policy Matters Ohio, embargoed for the Sunday before Labor Day.
“Three years into the recovery we’re not making sufficient progress on wages or job growth, and we’re failing to tap the talents of many of our neighbors,” said Amy Hanauer, report author and executive director of Policy Matters. “Ohio workers and families are not getting what they need from the public or the private sector.”
Leaving the labor market
For black Ohioans, the employment-to-population ratio plummeted to an alarming 48.6 percent in 2011, lower than at any point since 1983. Despite declines in labor force participation that keep discouraged workers out of the statistic, African Americans in Ohio were unemployed at a distressing 17 percent rate in 2011, the highest annual rate since 1986.
Other Ohioans also continued to leave the labor force last year