CINCINNATI (TDB) -- There are jobs being created in Ohio this year -- 36,200 have been added in the private sector to date. A meager recovery, but a recovery nonetheless. Some 600,000 jobs have disappeared in the last decade -- including nearly 400,000 during the Great Recession that started in December 2007 -- but new jobs are slowly returning to Ohio. The economic crisis was worsened by Wall Street's collapse and the burst mortgage bubble. The year-to-date trend line for jobs in Ohio is finally beginning to tick in the correct direction. Meanwhile, state budget officials are reporting glimmers of other positive economic signals, including an uptick in tax revenues that reflects the current flow of Ohio's economy. They also said state spending is down, an indication that Gov. Ted Strickland is holding the line. The monthly financial report prepared by Ohio's Office of Budget and Management went out two days ago. It said:
"During the month of September, Ohio's General Revenue Fund (GRF) tax receipts totaled $1.494.4 million [$1.5 billion], $56.2 million (3.9%) above the monthly estimate. General Revenue Fund tax receipts for the year-to-date total $3.9997.7 million [rounded to $4 billion] and are $248.2 million (6.6%) greater than the same point a year ago. For the second month in a row, Ohio has seen better-than-expected performance across most tax sources, and as a result, tax receipts for the first quarter of the fiscal year are $107.0 million (2.7%) above estimate."
"September fiscal year 2011 GRF spending totaled $2.182.3 million [$2.2 billion] and is $173.2 million (7.4%) below estimate for the month. On a year-to-date basis, total GRF disbursements are $33.8 million (0.4%) under estimate. This variance is attributable to under-spending in nearly every category of GRF disbursements."
The full-text of Ohio's latest monthly financial report is available on the OBM website. It is the document dated Oct. 12, 2010.
Showing posts with label Ohio Jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ohio Jobs. Show all posts
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
John Kasich's Ohio Debate Gaffe: 'We Haven't Lost Jobs to China.'
CINCINNATI (TDB) -- There really is no doubt about it. Ohio jobs have moved overseas -- thousands to China. By one count, some 66,100 Ohio jobs had been shifted to China by 2007. And Republican John Kasich was dead wrong to claim in a gubernatorial debate against Ted Strickland last night that the jobs haven't disappeared. Kasich said, "We haven't lost jobs to China."
Workers who made Eljer plumbing fixtures in Salem, Ohio would be surprised to learn their manufacturing jobs didn't go to China.
People who made Etch A Sketch, the toy that draws on a screen using two knobs, and let's you erase it and start all over again, saw their life's work leave its small town Ohio home after 40 years. CBS News reported: "To save labor and production costs, Ohio Art Company is closing its Bryan, Ohio plant and moving production to China. The company announced its decision last month. Thirty workers are affected by the move - a lot for a town of 9,000 people. The Ohio employees made their last Etch A Sketches on Friday, three days before Christmas." The new plant that replaced the operation in Bryan, Ohio (in NW Ohio) is in Shenzen, China. By the way, Bryan is in Williams County, which nearly has the state's worst unemployment rate. Almost 14% of the county's workers are jobless.
And here's Malachi Mixon, chairman of Invacare Corp., near Cleveland. Kasich is on Invacare's board of directors. The company moved Ohio jobs to China, a fact that Mixon confirmed in a Jan. 31, 2008 inveterview with The Plain Dealer:
"Q: How difficult was the decision to move production to China?Invacare CEO Mixon: 'It wasn't difficult because it's about survival. [and] We realized we simply couldn't compete from America. You can take virtually any product made in Cleveland, make it in China, ship it back here and pay the freight for probably about 25 percent lower cost.' Invacare CEO Mixon said his Ohio labor costs were about $14 an hour; "And China, 50 cents."
UPDATE 3:09 PM -- Data published earlier this year by Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland think tank that is largely supported by labor, shows 10 companies in Ohio shifted production to China between May 2009 and May 2010. All told, there were 1,294 Ohio jobs lost. Kasich said there were none. Policy Matters Ohio gathered its data by analyzing records compiled by the U.S. Labor Department under the Trade Adjustment Act. Here's some of what the think tank said in its July report:
". . . by far, the largest number of Ohio jobs that have been shifted abroad and certified under the trade assistance program have been going to Mexico [4,668 jobs]. Each of the three largest certifications involving production shifts -- Ford Motor Co.'s Cleveland cast plant, Wal-Mart's eyeglass plant in Lockbourne and Avon's cosmetics plant in Springale (near Cincinnati) -- saw production go to Mexico. The vast bulk of the jobs shifted to Mexico, as with China, are manufacturing jobs."
Workers who made Eljer plumbing fixtures in Salem, Ohio would be surprised to learn their manufacturing jobs didn't go to China.
People who made Etch A Sketch, the toy that draws on a screen using two knobs, and let's you erase it and start all over again, saw their life's work leave its small town Ohio home after 40 years. CBS News reported: "To save labor and production costs, Ohio Art Company is closing its Bryan, Ohio plant and moving production to China. The company announced its decision last month. Thirty workers are affected by the move - a lot for a town of 9,000 people. The Ohio employees made their last Etch A Sketches on Friday, three days before Christmas." The new plant that replaced the operation in Bryan, Ohio (in NW Ohio) is in Shenzen, China. By the way, Bryan is in Williams County, which nearly has the state's worst unemployment rate. Almost 14% of the county's workers are jobless.
And here's Malachi Mixon, chairman of Invacare Corp., near Cleveland. Kasich is on Invacare's board of directors. The company moved Ohio jobs to China, a fact that Mixon confirmed in a Jan. 31, 2008 inveterview with The Plain Dealer:
"Q: How difficult was the decision to move production to China?Invacare CEO Mixon: 'It wasn't difficult because it's about survival. [and] We realized we simply couldn't compete from America. You can take virtually any product made in Cleveland, make it in China, ship it back here and pay the freight for probably about 25 percent lower cost.' Invacare CEO Mixon said his Ohio labor costs were about $14 an hour; "And China, 50 cents."
UPDATE 3:09 PM -- Data published earlier this year by Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland think tank that is largely supported by labor, shows 10 companies in Ohio shifted production to China between May 2009 and May 2010. All told, there were 1,294 Ohio jobs lost. Kasich said there were none. Policy Matters Ohio gathered its data by analyzing records compiled by the U.S. Labor Department under the Trade Adjustment Act. Here's some of what the think tank said in its July report:
". . . by far, the largest number of Ohio jobs that have been shifted abroad and certified under the trade assistance program have been going to Mexico [4,668 jobs]. Each of the three largest certifications involving production shifts -- Ford Motor Co.'s Cleveland cast plant, Wal-Mart's eyeglass plant in Lockbourne and Avon's cosmetics plant in Springale (near Cincinnati) -- saw production go to Mexico. The vast bulk of the jobs shifted to Mexico, as with China, are manufacturing jobs."
Monday, March 12, 2007
Ohio Pension Divestment Bill: Will It Chill The State's Busness Climate?
CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Rookie State Rep. Shannon Walker Jones may be on the verge of filing a bill that blocks Ohio from investing in companies that do business with Iran. One of those companies, the giant German multi-national Siemens AG, has been No. 10 on the list of major employers in Warren County, a SW Ohio community that Jones represents in the Ohio House. JMZ at Writes Like She Talks has been thinking about foreign corporations and terrorist states, too.
Meanwhile, there also is evidence in state files showing that Ohio has made low-interest loans to Siemens in order to keep jobs in the state. In January 2006, the Ohio Department of Development issued the following statement:
"Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc., located in Norwood (Hamilton County), will receive a $3 million R&D Investment Loan Fund loan at an interest rate of two percent for a 10-year term to purchase equipment and make improvements to their Norwood facility. Siemens AG is one of the largest global electronic and engineering companies in the world, and an industry leader in medical, power, automation and control, transportation, information and communications, lighting, building technologies, water technologies and services, and home appliances. The $8.5 million project is expected to retain 327 jobs within the first three years of the project’s initial operation.
"The 166 Direct Loan program provides loans for land and building acquisition, expansion or renovation, and equipment purchase. The Innovation Ohio Fund Loan (IOF)assists existing Ohio companies develop next generation products in industry sectors that include: advanced materials; instrument, controls and electronics; power and propulsion; biosciences; and information technology."
But Jones, R-Springboro, issued a press release last week with State Rep. Josh Mandel, R-Lyndhurst, promising legislation to mandate that the state of Ohio divest investments from corporations doing business in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The implication is that the foreign firms are threats to the U.S., and are less than admirable world citizens. That seems to clash head on with Ohio's public policy of trying to court Siemens and even promote expansion.
Jones and Mandel said huge sums of state pension dollars are being invested in companies with ties to states that sponsor terrorists. Jones contends the divestment measure would be sound fiscal policy and a strong stand against terrorism. In a way, she wants Ohio to have a backdoor foreign policy of its own: Do business with people we don't like and we won't do business with you.
Their plan would prohibit state agencies from investing assets in any corporation doing business in the Islamic Republic of Iran and require government agencies to undertake a program to eliminate any investments prohibited by the bill within one year of the bill's effective date. Mandel said Missouri and California have started to address this issue through legislation, and that the measure he and Jones intend to introduce for Iran-free funds in Ohio would be the nation's most aggressive Iran divestment policy.
But the measure could hugely embarrass foreign firms that have invested in Ohio and put people to work. For example, Siemens has several operations around Ohio and overall is the 88th largest employer in the state. At last count, it had about 3,200 workers in Ohio. It is nearly the same size employer as Bowling Green State University. And it was tied with Owens Corning of Toledo, a company that is a household word in the Glass City.
Some information about the Munich-based multi-national's division in Warren County is HERE. A recent Ohio Department of Development research report about the state's top employers is
HERE.
The question: Will the Jones-Mandel measure scare off foreign companies whose U.S. subsidiaries have put Ohioans to work? Does the proposed divestment policy harm the efforts of economic development officials who try to recruit companies? Should Ohio have its own foreign policy?
Bottomline: the Jones-Mandel proposal appears well-intentioned. But there could be unintended consequences if foreign multi-nationals decide Ohio has a hostile climate.
Meanwhile, there also is evidence in state files showing that Ohio has made low-interest loans to Siemens in order to keep jobs in the state. In January 2006, the Ohio Department of Development issued the following statement:
"Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc., located in Norwood (Hamilton County), will receive a $3 million R&D Investment Loan Fund loan at an interest rate of two percent for a 10-year term to purchase equipment and make improvements to their Norwood facility. Siemens AG is one of the largest global electronic and engineering companies in the world, and an industry leader in medical, power, automation and control, transportation, information and communications, lighting, building technologies, water technologies and services, and home appliances. The $8.5 million project is expected to retain 327 jobs within the first three years of the project’s initial operation.
"The 166 Direct Loan program provides loans for land and building acquisition, expansion or renovation, and equipment purchase. The Innovation Ohio Fund Loan (IOF)assists existing Ohio companies develop next generation products in industry sectors that include: advanced materials; instrument, controls and electronics; power and propulsion; biosciences; and information technology."
But Jones, R-Springboro, issued a press release last week with State Rep. Josh Mandel, R-Lyndhurst, promising legislation to mandate that the state of Ohio divest investments from corporations doing business in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The implication is that the foreign firms are threats to the U.S., and are less than admirable world citizens. That seems to clash head on with Ohio's public policy of trying to court Siemens and even promote expansion.
Jones and Mandel said huge sums of state pension dollars are being invested in companies with ties to states that sponsor terrorists. Jones contends the divestment measure would be sound fiscal policy and a strong stand against terrorism. In a way, she wants Ohio to have a backdoor foreign policy of its own: Do business with people we don't like and we won't do business with you.
Their plan would prohibit state agencies from investing assets in any corporation doing business in the Islamic Republic of Iran and require government agencies to undertake a program to eliminate any investments prohibited by the bill within one year of the bill's effective date. Mandel said Missouri and California have started to address this issue through legislation, and that the measure he and Jones intend to introduce for Iran-free funds in Ohio would be the nation's most aggressive Iran divestment policy.
But the measure could hugely embarrass foreign firms that have invested in Ohio and put people to work. For example, Siemens has several operations around Ohio and overall is the 88th largest employer in the state. At last count, it had about 3,200 workers in Ohio. It is nearly the same size employer as Bowling Green State University. And it was tied with Owens Corning of Toledo, a company that is a household word in the Glass City.
Some information about the Munich-based multi-national's division in Warren County is HERE. A recent Ohio Department of Development research report about the state's top employers is
HERE.
The question: Will the Jones-Mandel measure scare off foreign companies whose U.S. subsidiaries have put Ohioans to work? Does the proposed divestment policy harm the efforts of economic development officials who try to recruit companies? Should Ohio have its own foreign policy?
Bottomline: the Jones-Mandel proposal appears well-intentioned. But there could be unintended consequences if foreign multi-nationals decide Ohio has a hostile climate.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)