COLUMBUS, Ohio – As we pause to celebrate the American worker this Labor Day, a new report indicates many Ohio workers may not feel so appreciated.

Amy Hanauer, executive director of the research group Policy Matters Ohio, says its new report, "State of Working Ohio," finds labor market participation was at a 34-year low in 2013.

"While some of those reasons are valid, what concerns us is when people have left the labor market even though they are prime age, even though they're of working age, that's a sign that the labor market is just not producing the opportunities that we want," she stresses.

Hanauer says since 2005 when tax cuts were passed promising job creation, Ohio has lost more than 2 percent of its jobs while the nation added almost 4 percent.

More than 7 percent of local government positions have been slashed.

The report also found that while productivity grew by almost 67 percent since 1979, median hourly wages fell by one percent.

Ohio's median wage of $15.81 per hour last year was 90 cents below the national median wage.

And Hanauer says there are staggering wage inequalities, with the top 1 percent of earners bringing in about 18 times more than everyone else.

"The bottom 99 percent of Ohioans as a group actually saw their incomes decline by 7 percent, while the top 1 percent as a group saw their incomes grow by more than 70 percent since 1979," she points out.

Hanauer adds policies are needed that spur job creation in the state, including investments in education and the green economy, which she says can both position Ohio for long-term growth and more efficient use of resources.

"One of the things that I really love about these two strategies is that they are smart, they save money down the road, they make our communities better and stronger and they employ people now,” she says. “This is the time to do that."

The report also recommends rehiring laid-off public sector workers.

Hanauer says these investments will reduce future costs for remedial education, incarceration, unemployment and energy while increasing employment.



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A person's work personnel file can be important to review, but some Washingtonians are finding them hard to obtain.

A bill in Olympia would ensure they get them in a timely manner. The legislation would require businesses to release workers' personnel files within 14 days or pay statutory damages to the worker.

Such files can contain key information on an employee's termination for workers' compensation cases or unemployment benefits.

Rep. Julia Reed, D-Seattle, said some companies withhold files for long periods of time or hand them over heavily redacted.

"If you're trying to get unemployment you don't have a month to wait for your employer to say that they found your file," Reed contended. "I think it's reasonable to ask employers to find things within two weeks."

Opponents of the bill said it will be hard for businesses to accommodate requests in the bill's 14-day time period, especially for small businesses. The legislation has passed the House and is scheduled for executive session in the Senate Committee on Labor and Commerce today.

Jesse Wing, a trial lawyer in Seattle, said the bill puts teeth in the current law when it comes to handing over personnel files. He is critical of businesses opposed to the measure.

"It all seems like an effort to shut down kind of a due process of an employee to know what's going on with their employment, and I think it just emphasizes the need for this bill," Wing asserted.

Reed added the goal of the bill is to help workers.

"This bill just basically tries to balance the scales a little bit and say that this information that your employer keeps on you is your information, and you should have a right to see it," Reed stressed.


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Nevada now supports 1.5 million jobs, according to a new report.

The Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation's January 2023 economic report showed the number of jobs in the state is up 6% over the past year.

David Schmidt, chief economist for the department, said the state has continued to recover from the COVID-19 recession and is continuing to add jobs across various sectors. He noted the only exception is the leisure and hospitality industry, which is sitting at about 85% of the employment level it was pre-pandemic.

"We have also seen a shift in where jobs are," Schmidt pointed out. "We are growing in areas like transportation, warehousing and utilities. We are growing in the manufacturing industry. We are growing in construction and professional business services."

Schmidt emphasized the report also showed the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 5.5%, the highest unemployment rate of any state. Schmidt stated the high jobless rate and large number of available jobs reflects what he called an ongoing tight labor market.

Schmidt explained the report tells two stories: It shows the state's employment growth is strong, with the highest employment growth in the country over the last year, about one percentage point higher than Texas, which came in at 5%. Schmidt added many times unemployment is associated with a bad economy, but he thinks in Nevada's case it means people are engaged with the labor market and looking for the right gig.

"Nationally there is also this very high number of job openings relative to the number of people who are unemployed overall," Schmidt observed. "In Nevada that ratio is a little bit better than in most states. We only have about 20,000 more job openings than people looking for work."

Schmidt also pointed to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which showed in both Nevada and the U.S., more people are quitting their jobs versus being laid off.

He said the ratio between separations has never been so high, which tells him workers have more power and more ability to go after preferred wages, benefits and working conditions.


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Tacoma Art Museum workers are rallying Thursday outside the museum while the Board of Trustees meets, to call for recognition of their union from the Board of Trustees, again.

Workers went public with their union in October but could not include security workers in the union unless the museum voluntarily recognized them.

Carrie Morton, store manager at the museum, said the union is necessary because workers have not been involved in decision-making.

"We all deserve to have a safe place to work, we all deserve to have transparency in our workplace, and we all deserve to feel safe and protected and not have to worry about being punished for speaking out," Morton argued.

The Board of Trustees initially said it refused recognition because the museum is searching for a new executive director. Board members also say the union should be split in two because conditions for security workers are different from the rest of the museum.

Stephen Rue, lead preparator for the museum, said the security workers would be excluded from the union because of a section of the National Labor Relations Act passed in 1935. He pointed out the exclusion has its roots in a racist practice from the era.

"As a small museum with not that many workers, having one union to represent all is not only more efficient, but it's more equitable," Rue contended.

If the union is certified, it would be the first representing all workers in a museum in Washington state.


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