COLUMBUS – While a new report shows Ohio was quick to recover jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, steps taken to slow down raging inflation in it wake may slow that job growth as well.
The annual State of Working Ohio report for 2022, released on Labor Day by the group Policy Matters Ohio, shows that while the state has recovered 85% of the jobs lost to COVID-19 — three times faster than it regained jobs lost during the great recession 14 years ago — that recovery could be in jeopardy.
“There is a note of caution, that depending on how aggressively they push to reduce inflation, the Federal Reserve really could reverse this job growth,” Michael Shields, lead author of the report, said.
“We could even see a recession, but generally we’re seeing really good recovery,” he said.
The inflation over the last two years was kicked off by the pandemic, but Shields says corporate profits now make up over 50% of cost increases.
According to the report, slightly more Ohioans than usual quit their jobs during COVID but most left for other jobs.
The number of people quitting their jobs never kept pace with the number of new hires, the group said.
The report indicates the state has lost over 700,000 manufacturing jobs since the 1970’s and many of those workers have been forced to settle for lower wages.
Shields points to a decline in union representation as a major factor keeping wages flat since the ’70s.
Wage theft
Another challenge Ohio workers often face is wage theft, where employers don’t pay for all hours worked, the report stated.
“Employers steal from some 213,000 Ohioans through minimum wage non-payment alone,” Shields said. “There are other things like not paying time-and-a-half for overtime, things like not paying for all hours worked, sometimes folks will work a short-term job and just never get their last paycheck.”
The report also lists misclassification of workers as contractors as another form of wage theft.