Reaching the unemployed

Montgomery and Clark counties’ 3.3% unemployment rates in December were highest in the 9-county region, topping the state’s 3.1% rate, according to non-seasonally adjusted data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It sometimes can be a challenge to get unemployed people to take advantage of the training programs, said Jan Lepore-jentleson, executive director of East End Community Services in Dayton.

“There are folks who are not working that are on the margin. There are so many barriers in their lives I think they’ve given up,” she said. “They just don’t even try.”

There also may be a steep learning curve for people who feel technology has left them behind and that they wouldn’t be able to handle a fast-paced training program, she said.

Her nonprofit social services organization is working to overcome that inertia, by talking to clients about their well-being, asking them what they would like to see change in their lives and then coaching them in ways to work toward that goal and navigate the steps to get involved in training programs.

“We can help them see how that change will be beneficial to them,” Lepore-jentleson said. “Until people can see a different future in their lives we don’t see that they are going to take advantage of things that are out there like those great job training programs that exist.”

Some said the region also needs to do more to get the word out about the region’s assets, to convince people who don’t live here to come here to live and work, and to convince companies it is a great place to do business.

“Business tends to care about a handful of things: workforce, safety, affordability and amenities,” said Kevin Willardsen, associate professor of economics at Wright State University. “A critical look at Dayton reveals that we are well-suited to nearly all of these needs. Dayton has the capacity to train any size workforce the region may need.”

“Dayton is capable of making anything,” Willardsen said. “It’s the Gem City for a reason.”