More NE Ohio Job Info: Hot Jobs for 2007

Browsing through my daily dose of Crain's Cleveland I discovered an article on three 'fields' of expertise that are supposed to be 'hot' in NE Ohio. This according to the staffing firm Robert Half. The three jobs are:

• Accounting
• Finance
• Help Desk/IT Support (DUH!)

You can read the Crain's article here. You can read the Robert Half press release here.

Then I decided to do some more research. According to Careerbuilder.com (a thriving and expanding local company I might add), these are top ten jobs:

1. Radiation Therapist

2. Nurse Paralegals (like tax attorneys only different lol)

3. Genetic Counselor (assisting families with family members who have birth defects)

4. Legal Nurse Consultant

5. Art Therapist

6. Computer Forensic Expert

7. Medical Illustrator

8. Veterinary Physical Therapist

9. Animal Defense Lawyer

10. Animal Assistant Therapist

To find out more you can read the article. Peace Out - 3C

Voices and Choices Newsletter

Voices and Choices is truly a unique organization - fluid, in that it is all about us being able to have an impact and well, a voice! They have a newsletter now and I just received my copy in my email this morning.

Manufacturing jobs going unfilled.....I talked about it here. Apparently it is going to be the subject of an Associated Press story with a highlight on Northeast Ohio. Some excerpts are in the newsletter which you can read here. One thing I loved was hearing that an effort is being made to take the newly displaced Ford workers and train them to fill some of these jobs. The catch has been....skill level. While it's true that many manufacturing companies have disappeared, the ones that are unfilled require certain skills. I say get one of Cleveland's junior high (OK, middle school) and high schools more actively involved....a course load that is started in seventh grade that would enable more students 'at the end of the day' to choose a career in manufacturing. The WIRE NET Max Hayes program is fabulous, but we are only talking 25 students at a time. Anyway, that is my thought. What do you think?

Dream It Do It! is a local campaign to solve this problem. They are the ones who are looking to train and place the Ford workers.

If you want your own newsletter, and I hope you do, so you can add your voice to what happens here in Northeast Ohio, go to the Advance Northeast Ohio website. Peace Out - 3C

Would You Believe: Cleveland Ranks in Top Five Hottest Job Markets According to Monster Board

Ok, MonsterBoard, the job finding phenomenon, looked at job growth as it related to on line job demand, and came up with some interesting statistics. These are the five hottest job markets, according to Monster:

1. Houston
2. Dallas
3. Atlanta
4. Cleveland
5. St. Louis

For more of the story, check out the source at Monster® By the time you get to number 27 and 28 on the list (San Diego and Washington DC - Washington DC?) there was zero percent job growth on line. Surprised me! And btw, Monster stats show Cleveland with a 10 percent growth in one year. Peace Out - 3C

Need a Job In Cuyahoga County? These Jobs May Be Waiting For You

According to today's Plain Dealer, in an article written by Allison Grant, there are unfilled jobs - chronically hard to fill because the nature of the jobs. Here is the list:

1. Sales representatives
2. Teacher
3. Mechanic
4. Technician
5. Management Executive
6. Truck Driver
7. Driver/Delivery
8. Accountant
9. Laborer
10. Machine Operator

This list is from Manpower, Inc. They interviewed upward of 2,400 employers across the U.S.
According to the Manpower study, engineers and nurses came off the list and teachers and mechanics moved up to second and third place. If you browse our local, available job listings, there are usually teaching jobs 'going begging' and they are almost always in Early Childhood areas, Special Education or Math and Sciences.

I know from interviewing Rebecca Kusner of WIRE-NET a few months ago that local manufacturers are working with them on training programs so they can fill their unfilled job positions.

I was wondering what employers are doing to help meet their goals and the Manpower Study has some answers, at least from those they interviewed. Flexible work schedules and improved benefits were mentioned as changes offered to entice prospective employees.

To view the entire Manpower White paper survey follow this link to the pdf files on line.
Peace Out - 3C

4/10/07 (During the news tonight I saw a commercial. I swear it was called 'Dream It, Do It', and it talked about being a machinist and what it means in today's world. Paid for by a bunch of people, including NEO manufacturing companies. I wasn't dreaming myself, was I?)

Curiosity just got the better of me so I headed to Craigslist. They have a substantial employment section and under manufacturing? Steady job listings. For example:

1. A Mentor company looking for a Precision Grinder (well it actually said precision grider and since I'm not in manufacturing, that may or may NOT be a typo!) Familiarity with blue prints needed. Pay is hourly, they said $14 and up.

2. Two positions as a welder in a Cleveland company; all in all, over 14 jobs listed in the manufacturing field since April 1st.

Lends credence to the original article/survey done by Manpower Inc, yes?

High Technology Scorecard for Northeast Ohio: Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

It depends on what measure you use, like anything else related to economics. What got me interested in this story was a news story (television) focused on Keithley Instruments- a computer chip company based here. They interviewed executives with Keithley who said 60% of their venture capital in last year came from out of state --- and they were adamant about the fact that this meant venture capitalists were keen on Northeast Ohio and her ability to grow the high tech sector. Okay, that makes sense to me.

The second part of the story comes from Crains Cleveland Business news, saying that a CSU study showed the glass half empty for the first half of this decade: National high tech growth fell 8% while in Northeast Ohio the figure was 13%. BUT (now back to the glass half full!) salaries in our high tech companies rose 6.5%. And in this article they say they expect continued growth in the industry. Peace Out - 3C

Judge Rules Against Cleveland's Residency Laws

Crain's Cleveland website edition has an article written by Jay Miller regarding a Common Pleas Court decision today that supports Ohio Legislation blocking Cleveland's right to require people reside where they work. Another article from Cleveland.com

The Judge brings up the point that the City of Cleveland can still offer strong incentives for people to live in Cleveland and work in Cleveland. The City of Cleveland vows to continue the fight.

Personally, I think Cleveland already offers a lot of what I need to live here: walkable neighborhoods, affordable taxes, schools with a broad spectrum of classes and great teachers, and a beautiful housing stock with character, built in the days when pride in construction was the norm.
Peace Out - 3C

What's Faster Than a Speeding Bullet? The Ohio Hub Train

It seems there are more things to do today than there are hours, which must be why I am up at 5 o'clock in the morning. So let's feature a video. One of my passions, the proposed 3C Corridor Plan/Ohio Hub Initiative. All Aboard Ohio's website is the place to find out the most recent news and details. Read my Active Rain post on The Hub and when you get to the bottom of the comment list you will find a way to support this project. You need Quick Time in order to watch this video. It features fast trains (110 mph) and as the narrator says ".....5000 HP jet engine bullet that can get you anywhere in Ohio in an hour or two....." This is definitely, they say, "Not Your Daddy's Train." Climb on board and Enjoy the video!!

Jobs For Our Grads That Don't Include French Fries

You might think I'm on a rant about jobs. Hmm, I guess I am. I wrote a post the other day on the Cleveland Hub Initiative which could bring 6500 jobs to Ohio once the project gets off the ground. Today I'm still on jobs because, well, because we all want more jobs in Cleveland. I was lucky enough to talk with Rebecca Kusner, Vice President of the Workforce Development 'arm' of WIRE-NET, which is a cool acronymn for Westside Industrial Retention and Expansion Network. WIRE-NET has been around since 1988, doing things like helping manufacturing companies experience economic growth. There are over 200 member companies under the WIRE-NET umbrella (who knew there were THAT many manufacturing companies on the west side of Cleveland!)

What else does WIRE-NET do? Industrial Real Estate. They work with redevelopment corporations, city governments, individual companies. For example, Rebecca pointed out that WIRE-NET was involved in the recent successful efforts to implode the old Trinity Building (on Detroit in Cleveland) where a factory sat vacant. The City and well, all of us, now feel as if that land can be utilized for viable and much needed economic growth. WIRE-NET was instrumental in working on the brownfield remediation efforts there.

Rebecca oversees programs that help our companies with a pool of good job applicants. Their literature states that over 1800 people have been placed in jobs since WIRE-NET programs got started. They have Work Source, which places adults in jobs. Recently they have expanded their involvement to include continued supervision with the ability to provide job counseling for people placed in those jobs to help better ensure long term placement, and, as Rebecca said, overcome any barriers to job success. WIRE-NET has an on site program at Max Hayes High School, corporate sponsored and called School-to-Career. Rebecca Kusner told me WIRE-NET has been doing this for ten years. It includes training as well as job shadowing, paid work experience as an apprentice. There is also an Accelerated Introduction to Manufacturing (AIM) summer camp, opoen to 25 students. There is a recent graduate from John Marshall I am hoping to interview soon on this blog.

As an aside, manufacturing companies have been worried about replacing current workers as they retire. I remember reading that a majority of the machinists in our area are in their fifties. The WIRE-NET connection for these 200+ companies has been helping them replace that job force to keep the industry stronger.

Everyone wants to keep 'brain drain' from being a problem here, so a program like this can help keep our high school graduates off the streets and happily employed with a solid future. For more information: http://www.wire-net.org/ There is also a WIRE-NET blog with some insightful stories about manufacturing and manufacturers.

Enjoy this somewhat related music video by Bush :-)

Peace Out - 3C