Mike Kallmeyer discussed labor participation in the state's manufacturing sector with Jamie Karl, Managing Director of Communications Services at the Ohio Manufacturers' Association.

"Prior to the pandemic, Ohio had about 700,000 manufacturing jobs statewide and that's a big deal because Ohio is the country's third largest manufacturing state,” Karl said. “Manufacturing contributes over $100-billion annually to the state economy. Right now we don't have 700,000 manufacturing jobs, in fact, we're about 40,000 jobs under that mark primarily due to COVID but also due to our labor participation rate; it's four or five percent less than it was before the pandemic.”