CINCINNATI, Ohio – For job seekers throughout Ohio the market could not be in better shape.

• 172,932 jobs available in Ohio between Nov. and Dec. 2018
  
• Nearly 60 percent of available jobs pay between $30,000 and $79,000 per year
  
• Construction, manufacturing, trucking and logistics, and IT are top professions with openings

According to data compiled by the Conference Board and posted on the Ohio Means Jobs website, there are 172,932 jobs available through online postings.

“We have some of the lowest unemployment rates that we've had in 50 years,” said Sherry Marshall, President and CEO of the Southwest Ohio Region Workforce Investment Board. “In terms of jobs in construction, jobs in IT, jobs in healthcare, jobs in manufacturing – there are more jobs than there are people with experience and skills sets available to fill any one of those four industry sector areas.”

Of the available online jobs, approximately 60 percent pay between $30,000 and $79,000 per year. Most jobs require at least a high school diploma or GED, or an associates degree.

“This is a workers choice, hence the ghosting behavior that we see now where someone takes a job and doesn't show or someone comes to work and leaves and doesn't tell you they're not coming back. That's the behavior of someone who knows there's another job just down the street or just around the block or someone else that they can go. And although we have had cycles in the marketplace, I'm a 1971 graduate and I've never been in something where employers are this much in need of talent.”

Marhsall said employers are also more willing to provide tuition assistance or advancement because having an employer with knowledge, skills, and a strong work ethic is more beneficial than hiring someone with a degree and no experience.

“It's fair to say now that a technically skilled individual who can meet the demands of those industries has more leverage than they've probably ever had,” according to Marshall.

The top industries looking for workers in Ohio continue to be healthcare, information technology, construction, manufacturing, and trucking and logistics.