Wage Rise in October Highest in 7 Years (Dayton Daily News)

BarryStaff President Doug Barry is quoted in the following Dayton Daily News article. It was originally published on November 5, 2016.

Just as wages rise from a tighter job market nationally, one staffing firm owner says area employers are waging a talent war for qualified, willing workers.

In the final federal monthly jobs report before Tuesday’s presidential election, officials said 161,000 jobs were created in October and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.9 percent.

Perhaps the biggest news: Average hourly earnings for private-sector workers rose 2.8 percent over a year ago, the strongest annual wage growth in more than seven years.

Doug Barry, owner of staffing firm BarryStaff, said a tight employment market is pushing wages up.

“Companies are competing for the people who are working, and they’re having to offer higher wages,” Barry said.

And in many cases, employers are paying more to retain good workers, Barry said. “It’s a competitive job market now. As they say, it’s an employees’ market.”

This year has been a good one overall for Butler County businesses, including Hamilton, where significant expansions and hiring blitzes at Barclaycard, Startek, ThyssenKrupp Bilstein and ODW Logistics will have contributed more than 800 jobs to the city in 2016 alone, according to Brandon Saurber, Hamilton’s director of strategy and information.

The city expects to see an additional 1,000 jobs from those four companies in 2017, Saurber said.

As of Oct. 31, total wages paid by Hamilton employers have increased by around $40 million in 2016 compared with 2015, he said. Those gross wages are expected to top $1 billion annually in the first half of 2017.

“With the number of job opportunities expanding, our number one priority now is to get as many Hamiltonians as possible into these jobs,” said Jody Gunderson, Hamilton’s director of economic development.

Middletown’s economic development team has conducted approximately 75 business retention and expansion visits this year with others scheduled, according to Alexis Fitzsimmons, assistant economic development director.

“Every employer we have talked to has had steady or increasing numbers at their facilities,” Fitzsimmons said. “There are two employers in town that plan to expand their operations in the coming year due to new business lines and several that have excess capacity and are growing organically through existing customers.”

Beyond growth in Middletown’s industrial economic base, the city also has seen growth in its retail sector through new investments, such as the new Buffalo Wild Wings and Aspen Dental on the outskirts of Towne Mall Galleria.

“This is a trend we will continue to see as interest in the Middletown market continues to grow,” Fitzsimmons said.

Any job loss noted would probably be within the re-aligning retail sector, as Middletown continues to swap out large retail with smaller, locally derived experiences, said Matt Eisenbraun, the city’s assistant economic development director.

Greg Kathman, Fairfield’s development services director, said many business leaders have talked about the jobs that have been added or need to be added to keep up with recent growth.

“Just driving around town, you can see a lot of Now Hiring signs in business front yards,” Kathman said.

Fairfield companies that have shown job growth include Veritiv, which completed its move of more than 400 employees into Fairfield within the past few weeks, as well as Koch Foods, which has grown to more than 1,000 employees, with more expected to be added in 2017.

Pacific Manufacturing is constructing a $50 million expansion that will result in at least 62 jobs added to the 540 existing jobs, and CompuCom recently moved into a new building in Fairfield, bringing more than 100 information technology jobs. Element Materials Technology consolidated several local operations into Fairfield earlier this year, with 120 total jobs now at this facility.