Execs: Jobs ‘pipeline’ for region looks promising

BETHEL TWP., MIAMI COUNTY — While new job creation in the Dayton region is down this year, the “pipeline” of expected new jobs is humming, local and state economic developers said Friday at a JobsOhio board of directors meeting.

“We’re going strong, with a lot of growth,” Jeff Hoagland, Dayton Development Coalition president and chief executive, told a small audience at Aileron, the business education campus created 10 years ago just outside Tipp City by billionaire Clay Mathile.

There have been just over 1,140 new jobs committed in 2018 in the Dayton region and just over 3,600 existing jobs retained, Hoagland said.

Retained jobs and existing employers already in the Dayton area and Ohio are key in the eyes of professional developers. Some 79 percent of job creation since 2012 has come from employers already anchored here.

The new jobs commitment this year amounts to 23 new projects won with new annual payroll of just over $52 million and capital investment of more than $262 million in the coalition’s 14-county Western Ohio region, according to the coalition’s numbers.

In 2017, for the entire year the region saw 2,078 new jobs committed, 10,208 current jobs retained, at a new payroll of $112.3 million, paired with a capital investment of $949.7 million in 37 new projects won.

Today, the coalition counts just under 32,000 jobs in the biosciences sector in the region. That’s projected to see 12 percent growth by 2023, the sector expected to grow fastest in the region.

The coalition focuses its efforts on five high-salary industry sectors, including aerospace and defense, advanced manufacturing, IT and data management and logistics.