News Release
Date: December 17, 2008
Contact: Larry Benders (216) 420-7615 lbenders@city.cleveland.oh.us and Mark Salling (216)781-2944 msalling@CommunitySolutions.com
Sent by: Roslyn Bucy Miller, 216-781-2944, rbmiller@CommunitySolutions.com
[Cleveland, OH] A unique study of Cuyahoga County’s workforce, completed for the Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Workforce Investment Board (WIB), was released today by The Center for Community Solutions. 2008 Cuyahoga County Workforce Indicators, unique in its comprehensiveness, reviews a variety of workforce characteristics as revealed by the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey and the most recent Ohio Family Health Survey.
The 120-page report covers 11 dimensions of the workforce population:
- Educational Attainment
- Labor Force Participation
- Unemployment Rate
- Occupations
- Median Earned Income
- Workforce Characteristics of Householders
- Persons with Work Disabilities
- Means of Transportation and Travel Time to Work
- Persons Ages 16 and Over Attending School
- Characteristics of Persons Looking for Work
- Health Status and Employment
Each chapter discusses the primary topic broken down into a variety of categories, including age, gender, race and Hispanic ethnicity, household type, and Cleveland and suburbs. Each chapter contains graphs and data tables accompanying descriptive text; maps illustrate issues of transportation and access to jobs. Comparisons with the state are also included. An appendix provides a table of employment by detailed occupation in Cuyahoga County. “The goal of this project was to provide labor force information critical to the planning, development, and implementation of initiatives that improve employment opportunities of dislocated workers and provide labor resources to business in our region,” said Larry Benders Executive Director of the Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Workforce Investment Board. “We look forward to working with the economic development, workforce development, and human services communities in making the best possible use of this new research.”
“We applaud the WIB’s commitment to using sound data and information as the basis for discussion and action that bring about positive change for people in our community,” said John A. Begala, Community Solutions’ executive director. “This study provides a rich profile of the county’s current workforce. It documents the need for more and better jobs; but it also indicates the need to strengthen the opportunities for education, training, and access to those good jobs. We believe a broad and sustained effort is needed, rather than one that only, or even mostly, targets job opportunities for those who are better educated.” The full report and an executive summary may be obtained at www.CommunitySolutions.com.
2008 Cuyahoga County Workforce Indicators: Highlights
The full report may be obtained at www.CommunitySolutions.com.
- Cuyahoga has a large workforce—two-thirds of a million people in 2006.
- Labor force participation increases with increased levels of educational attainment, but more than 100,000 adults age 25 and older in the county (12 percent) had not completed high school.
- Unemployment is more severe in Cuyahoga County than the state and nation. It was particularly severe for the young and African Americans and Hispanics.
- In 2006, the median earned income of civilians age 16 and older in Cuyahoga County was $28,173, significantly higher than the median of $25,356 for Ohioans. Cleveland workers had a median earned income of $20,728, one-third less than the suburban median of $30,186.
- At both the county and state levels, Whites and Asians had significantly higher median earned incomes than did African Americans, Hispanics, or those of other or multiple races. This difference was almost $10,000 for the African American and Hispanic workers.
- Twenty thousand persons with work disabilities in the county were in the labor force and, of these, 5,400 were unemployed.
- Many people work and attend school at the same time. Among those in school in the county, 24 percent were employed full-time, and 27 percent were working part-time. Furthermore, when jobs are scarce, people often turn to college to improve their employability.
- While a quarter of those who were employed in the county were African American, they consisted of half of those looking for work.
- Persons looking for work includes significant numbers who lived in households where at least one other person was working—two-fifths (24,600 persons) lived in households with one worker, and 18 percent were in households with two or more workers. Another two-fifths lived in households with no one working.
- In Cuyahoga County, those who reported their health as fair to poor were less likely to be employed—45 percent were employed versus 75 percent who reported they were in good to excellent health.
