OHIO JOBS OPIOID EPIDEMIC MAYBE IMPACTING WORKFORCE

The opioid CLEVELAND — epidemic that killed thousands of people last year in Ohio may be impacting the number of people who are employed or actively seeking work, economists say.

Ohio — which reported 4,050 unintentional drug overdose deaths last year — has been referred to as an epicenter of the U.S. opioid epidemic. The state’s labor force participation rate — which measures the number of people over 16 years old who are employed — is also lower than the nationwide average.

Circumstantial and anecdotal evidence suggests theremay be a relationship between those two statistics, and economists areworking to gather more data to establish a definitive connection.

“At a macro level, we’re seeing evidence that opioid addiction is impacting employment rates,” said David B. Greenberger, a professor of management at OhioStateUniversity’sFisher College of Business.

Greenberger pointed to a recent study, by Princeton University economist Alan Krueger, that found increased opioid use from 1999 to 2015may be responsible for 20 percent of the overall decline inworkforce participation among men ages 25 to 54.

Krueger’s findings do not draw a direct relationship between opioid use and the labor market, but they do reinforce anecdotal evidence, hewrote in his study. For example, decreases in labor force participation are greater in areas of the countrywheremore opioids have been prescribed.

Ohio’s labor force participation rate stood at 62.3 percent at the start of 2017. That was lower than the national average of 62.9 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Krueger asked 571 unemployed men to take part in his study. Nearly half said they take pain medication every day, and two-thirds said they use prescription painkillers.

The U.S. Federal Reserve concluded earlier this year that employers were struggling to fill low-skill positions because applicants did not meet minimumjob requirements andwere failing drug tests. And a Goldman Sachs economist said the opioid epidemic may be impacting the number of people who are employed and the number of people who are actively looking for work.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland researchers also found that drug overdose deaths statistics - especially in Ohio and parts of Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Virginia - suggest a large percentage of residents may be addicted to heroin, fentanyl or painkillers.

Researchers Dionissi Aliprantis and Anne Chen cautioned intheFederalReserve Bank of Cleveland report that the only statistics that are currently available cannot be used to drawa definitive link between opioid use and unemployment.

“Answering these questions requires accurate information, but unfortunately, there are reasons to doubt the accuracy of the only data we have,” Aliprantis and Chen wrote.