8,800: New data show that Ohio employers added 8,800 jobs in December, marking the fourth straight month of job growth in the state. In this month’s JobWatch, Michael Shields says it’s more proof of the power of government to drive a rapid recovery. 141,000: Also in JobWatch, Michael reports that
12,200: Seasonally adjusted data released today by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) show that Ohio employers added 12,200 jobs in November. In his monthly JobWatch report, Michael Shields notes that Ohio is on pace to recover from the pandemic recession twice as fast as we did
$1.2 billion: That’s how much money we’d have in state coffers if lawmakers passed a fair severance tax on fracking instead of toeing the oil and gas lobby line. When our new State Policy Fellow Guille (gee-sh-eh) Bervejillo did a back-of-the-envelope calculation about the potential revenue loss, he had to
12,600: On any given day, as many as 12,600 Ohioans are held in jail as they await trial, compared to 3,000 in 1978 — driven mostly by bail set by local courts, even though overall crime rates have gone down. Most of the people held in jail pretrial cannot afford
9,900: The number of jobs Ohio employers added last month. In our monthly JobWatch report, Researcher Michael Shields wrote that Ohio is recovering jobs about a third as quickly as the nation. Our state’s unemployment rate of 5.4% is higher than the national rate of 4.8%. More proof that Ohioans
36% & 26%: After the first expanded child tax credit payments hit bank accounts in July and August, 36% fewer Ohio families reported not having enough to eat in the last week and 26% fewer said they had difficulty paying for basic needs like utilities and rent. Those were some
240,000+: Congress allowed Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits to expire this month – pushing out 240,273 Ohioans just as COVID surged and hiring faltered. Michael Shields has the latest numbers in the August JobWatch report, which shows Ohio employers cut 2,400 jobs last month. More proof that Ohioans need policymakers
New analysis from Policy Matters Ohio shows that the Fair School Funding Plan (FSFP) included in the most recent two-year state budget would increase state resources sent to all schools and help make up for glaring racial inequality under the old funding system. The analysis shows that schools where students
269,000: Every Labor Day we release a report that looks at how working Ohioans did over the last year. Here is a sneak peek at one of the findings: Ohio still has 269,000 fewer jobs than before the pandemic started. rn rn That’s why it’s so critical that the state
My name is Zach Schiller and I am research director at Policy Matters Ohio, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute with offices in Cleveland and Columbus, whose mission is to create a more vibrant, equitable, inclusive and sustainable Ohio. I spent more than 20 years as a business reporter following companies
19,200: New data show that for the second straight month hiring ramped up in Ohio, with 19,200 more jobs in the state last month. In this month’s JobWatch, Researcher Michael Shields said state and federal policymakers shouldn’t take their foot off the gas. There are still fewer jobs in the
$5.3 billion: That’s how much money Ohio’s local governments will receive from the American Rescue Plan (ARP). Local officials should use the resources to make sure working people are paid fairly and protected on the job. We have a great new resource page for all things ARP, including highlights from
