Statewide labor market data paints only a partial picture of what’s really happening in Ohio communities. The unemployment rate for 2018 was 4.8%. Ohio has recovered all the jobs lost in the 2007 recession, but not yet enough to make up for population growth since then. The Ohio economy has slowly improved over the course of the recovery but the top-line statistics ignore regional and racial disparities and underlying weakness in the state’s recovery. Despite assertions otherwise, tax cuts for the wealthy have not produced miraculous recovery.

Ohio’s low unemployment rate masks a troubling contraction of the state’s workforce. Since 2007, 185,000 people have left stopped working and stopped looking for jobs and are no longer counted in the unemployment rate. The statewide data also hides deep regional disparities and wage stagnation. Most of Ohio’s regional economies have not recaptured all the jobs lost during the recession. Youngstown, despite some improvement in earnings, is in the worst shape measured by job growth, needing more than 19,000 jobs just to return to the 2007 levels. Akron is approaching the pre-recession threshold, lacking only 600 jobs. Columbus (+138,700 jobs since 2007) and Cincinnati (+64,600 jobs), regional drivers of the Ohio recovery, have not seen large earning gains in their most common occupations. Both saw modest earnings increases over 2018, but not enough to eliminate the need for assistance. Canton added 1,500 jobs since 2007 as growth in customer service jobs, which have typical earnings just above the 130% federal poverty threshold, became more common than lower earning janitorial work.

Job growth alone will not fix poverty or eliminate the need for assistance. Both the nation and state have productive economies with abundant wealth. Too many of Ohio’s leaders lack the political will to pass policies that will improve job quality, make education and training affordable and fund basic services like transit and childcare that help people work.

On May 1, 1884, the Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions, a forerunner of the AFL, declared a legal work day to be eight hours. Two years later, on May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers walked off their jobs to demand just that: eight hours for labor, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for what we will. But today many Ohioans are patching together multiple jobs just to get by. Salaried workers typically fare better. However, some salaried workers could earn less than $24,000 and not qualify for overtime no matter how many hours they are required to work.

The minimum wage peaked in 1968. Since then, inflation has eroded its value. Ohio voters increased the state minimum wage in 2006 and indexed it to inflation, but the wage had already fallen so low that restoring all the losses seemed politically out of reach. Today the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and Ohio’s minimum is set at $8.55. Big business with its allies in elected office are rolling back the economic security won by generations of collective bargaining. Too many jobs pay too little and fail to offer a real path to economic security. Many policy protections for working people have been dismantled, while the already wealthy and corporations enjoy record gains.

Policy Matters has released a 10-point policy plan to build an economy that works for all. Those points include several practical recommendations that are being implemented around the country. These are: