SitemapA population report from the Ohio Department of Development presents grim news for the future of Ohio and the Mahoning Valley. If the department’s projections come true, Ohio will lose nearly 6 percent of its residents by the year 2050. In the Mahoning Valley, the slide is much more severe. Mahoning County will lose a full 22 percent of its 225,000 residents over the next 25 years; Trumbull County will lose 20 percent of its 200,000 residents, according to the projections. Given that there is strength in numbers, Ohio will be a much weaker state if those numbers prove to be accurate. Therefore, a collective multi-pronged effort to disprove those forecasts must be a clear priority for state and local leaders and economic development groups in the coming years and decades.
Fortunately the Mahoning Valley is off to a great start to do just that.
Just earlier this week, for example, the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber announced it is working with eight state chambers of commerce to promote issues focused on strengthening Ohio’s metropolitan areas. The focus areas include expanding Ohio’s labor force, attracting and developing talent and increasing housing opportunities. Each of those areas plays critical roles in population growth.
First, the size of a labor force is directly proportional to any given region’s population. In the Valley, that relationship is painfully clear. According to the state Department of Development, Trumbull County has 78,000 jobs today compared with 98,000 in 2000. Mahoning County’s job numbers have tumbled from 105,000 to 93,000 over the past quarter century.
Clearly, the Valley has its work cut out for it. Toward that end, our region is blessed with a multitude of job-creation and economic development agencies led by the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber, the Lake to River Economic Development District, JobsOhio and others. Those partnerships already have logged considerable success. Gov. Mike DeWine recently lauded the Valley for its gargantuan gains over the past five years, including a 34% increase in business deals, a 23% increase in new jobs, a 61% increase in new payroll and a 140% increase in retaining jobs. That incredible momentum must continue and expand. As for the goal of developing and expanding the pool of labor talent, the Mahoning Valley also stands on firm ground. A multitude of public workforce development and training agencies offers services to tens of thousands.
They include the Mahoning and Trumbull chapter of Ohio Means Jobs, Mahoning and Columbiana Training Association, programs at county career centers, the Regional Chamber’s JobsNow Workforce Initiative, Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries and the Youngstown State University Excellence Training Center that focuses on comprehensive training in a variety of cutting-edge advanced manufacturing skill sets. A final piece of the strategy to increase Valley population rests on ensuring adequate affordable housing for employees of new business and industry. Here, too, considerable progress has been logged.
Take Youngstown, for example. Over the past 18 years, about 7,000 vacant and blighted homes have been demolished to pave the way for new residential construction. A variety of public and private programs involving city government, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and the Mahoning County Land Bank is working to build new and affordable homes. Similar initiatives have taken root in Trumbull County as well.
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