By Trista Bowser
Broadcast version by Mary Schuermann reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.
Due to the labor shortage in Ohio, many companies are employing teens who are looking to get into the workforce to keep their business going. An Ohio bill is being created to allow these teens to work later hours throughout the school year.
Mike Todd, 53, has been an owner of two Dairy Queens in Ohio for the past 24 years, one of which is located in Pickerington. Recently, he has noticed that many of the worker applicants are under 16 years of age.
"I'd say at least 60% to 65% of my employees are of high school age," Todd said.
Currently, 14 and 15-year-old workers are unable to work past 7 p.m. and can only work three hours in a day for only 18 hours in a week due to state and federal laws. In the summer when school isn't in session, teens are allowed to work until 9 p.m.
"Traditionally, most quick-service restaurants, and probably most sit-down restaurants as well, their peak hours are after 7 p.m.," Todd said. "The people who are under the age of 16, they provide a very vital role for us, to kind of fill in the gaps before the nighttime rush begins."
State Sen. Tim Schaffer proposed changing these rules in Senate Bill 251, which would allow minors to work with more flexibility.
Schaffer, 59, who represents the 20th District in the Ohio State Senate, heard about Todd's situation and immediately wanted to help find a solution.
Senator Schaffer was pulled aside by the executive director of the Pickerington Chamber of Commerce and asked if he had heard about Mike Todd's issue. "Everybody's hearing all about the struggle to get good workers in their businesses," said Schaffer. "That's not a secret. Everybody is struggling with that, but nobody has really said anything about expanding the hours that teenagers could work."
Senate Bill 251 would allow teens to work until 9 p.m. both in the summer and the school year, but it would still limit them to three hours per day on school days and 18 hours per week.
"I'd emphasize the guard rails that are already in the law that we're not changing, which is that they can't work more than three hours on a school day... and they can't work more than 18 hours a week during school session," Schaffer said.
Brandon Janis, 25, is one of the owners of Gino's Pizzeria in Medina.
At Gino's, around 50% of their employees are still in high school.
"We definitely try to target sophomores and juniors, that way they know they have a job all through high school and if they end up going to college, they can stay with us to deliver," said Janis.
But Janis said it can be difficult at times to schedule these students while meeting the needs of their education, extracurricular activities and the amount of hours that they are legally able to work.
"It's pretty hard to juggle when they can leave and what days they can actually work, because obviously everybody has different schedules. If they have some sports that they're playing, we have to work around that. It's definitely challenging," Janis said, though "I'm not saying it's impossible because we've been doing it for the last five years."
Eve Nevar, 18, a senior at Agape Christian Academy, works at a pizza shop and does some landscaping. It can be difficult to balance school, extracurricular activities, and work as she is busy with basketball along with taking college credit classes.
"It's kind of a struggle. I think it's beneficial because it helps me learn time management, but I also think it's kind of hard to keep up with sometimes. I have to figure out when I can work but [also] how can I get my paper written," Nevar said.
Nevar believes that S.B. 251 would be beneficial to high school students.
"I think it would definitely be helpful having more flexibility. I think that would help a lot," Nevar said "High schoolers want to work, but it's hard to be able to when you also want to do extracurriculars."
The Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee is currently reviewing the bill. It is co-sponsored by two Republicans, Schaffer and Steve Wilson, and two Democrats, Tina Maharath and Kenny Yuko.
The outcome of Ohio Senate Bill 251 might hinge on federal action, though. The federal government still limits the hours teenagers can work.
The Ohio Senate has requested the same changes in the Fair Labor Standards Act that Ohio Senate Bill 251 proposes. That measure is now on its way to the Ohio House of Representatives.
"Getting anything through Congress, no matter how noble the cause, always takes longer," explained Schaffer via email.
"The bottom line is, we want people who want to work, and the majority of applications that we have received at our business show us that these young people want to work, they want the job, and they want the experience of having their own money and having their own set of responsibilities," said Todd.
This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.
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A unique approach to preventing youth homelessness in Washington is proving highly effective, with more than 93% of participants still housed one year later.
The Homelessness Prevention and Diversion Fund provides flexible aid to young people in nine Washington counties. In its first three years, it has helped more than 1,700 young people find safe housing. Washington has the nation's third-highest homelessness rate, and supporters said the program saves money by removing red tape and keeping youth out of shelters.
Jim Theofelis, founder and executive director of NorthStar Advocates, said the strategy is simple: Ask youth what they need.
"We actually asked the young person, 'Where can you live and what will that take to make that happen?'" Theofelis explained. "Which is a very different approach than saying, 'Go to that shelter three miles down and take a right.'"
Instead of using a central nonprofit, Theofelis pointed out the program trains advocates in places where homeless youth go for help, like drop-in centers and fire stations, so they can quickly access funds to get into safe housing. Lawmakers are considering cuts to the program, which Theofelis warned would raise state costs and reduce support for young people.
Most young people have somewhere safe they can go, Theofelis added but they may need a small financial boost to make the transition.
"Some people will say, 'I could live with grandma, but she's really poor and she needs some help.' Or, 'I'm 23, I have two friends and I could get a room with them if I had first and last month's rent,'" Theofelis outlined.
Theofelis noted youth typically face more steps to find housing, starting with shelters and case management, while the fund's approach is much faster. After an application, advocates ensure the housing is safe and send a one-time payment averaging $2,700 directly where it's needed. Theofelis emphasized it is much cheaper than other strategies.
"We're saving emergency shelter beds, all kinds of other funding sources that come into play once they hit the streets," Theofelis stressed. "We really think this saves money and helps reduce our budget deficit, as well as saving lives."
Of the teens and young adults the program has served, about 60% are people of color and nearly 40% are pregnant or parenting.
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April is Second Chance Month, with extra focus on helping people with a criminal past keep from becoming repeat offenders.
In steering Minnesota youths away from a troubled path, experts said public messaging needs a reset. Recent survey findings from the social issues firm Fenton Communications showed a majority of Americans think violent crime rates for youth are on the rise.
Jennifer Hahn, chief client officer for Fenton, said in a forum hosted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the numbers have actually been going down, except for isolated pockets. She noted the public still hangs onto a certain mindset for when a young person is accused of committing a crime.
"There still is this very sticky belief that punishment works," Hahn observed.
Hahn suggested such beliefs muddy the conversation about pushing ahead with effective interventions. On the brighter side, many survey respondents felt meeting a child's basic needs, such as access to health care, leads to better outcomes. Hahn pointed out that recognition can be a useful tool for churches, local leaders and others trying to elevate youth programs.
Hahn advised youth advocates should not flat out reject how the public feels about crime, even if one's sentiments conflict with the data. One reason is not everyone will be convinced. Instead, she hopes public discourse leans more on the role strong communities play in shaping youth, because it already resonates with a lot of people.
"Let's get safe spaces so that kids can do this," Hahn urged. "Let's support parents because it's challenging. Let's help local communities offer more job opportunities or recreation programs."
Overall, Hahn recommended a balanced approach of weighing the facts and engaging in stories about positive community responses. She encouraged people, no matter their role in the discussion, to stop using terms such as "juvenile delinquent," saying they feed into harmful assumptions.
State data show between 2012 and 2022, the number of Minnesota children arrested each year for serious crimes was nearly cut in half.
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By Vanessa Davidson / Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.
Around 1,000 more people moved into Ohio than moved out of it in 2023, according to Census data.
At the same time, Ohio is aging: Between 2010 and 2024, the percentage of Ohioans aged 65 and older increased from 14.1% to 18.7%, which is about one percentage point higher than the national average.
“Younger people are more likely to move to pursue job opportunities, and there are lots of opportunities in Ohio, but they're not all evenly distributed,” said Robert J. Graham, senior research scholar and associate director of Scripps Gerontology Center at Ohio’s Miami University.
Because younger adults tend to concentrate in urban areas for jobs, rural areas are experiencing the impact of an aging population the most.
“There are some [people] that say, ‘Hey, I want to go to college. I want to increase my education and get new opportunities,’ or ‘I'm looking for jobs,’ and those jobs tend to be created in more urban areas, or suburban [areas], and the rural areas in particular are seeing the face of that,” Graham said.
“They're having an increasing aging population and decreasing number of young adults and people to fill important services that are needed in their communities,” he added.
On the other hand, according to a 2025 data study from SmartAsset, Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland saw an influx of new residents in 2023. Columbus saw an estimated 75,500 (around 8.4% of the city’s population) adults between 25 and 44 move in. Newcomers in that age range accounted for 6.9% of Cincinnati’s population and 6.4% of Cleveland’s.
Forbes included Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus on its 2024 “best cities for young professionals” list.
In addition to employment opportunities, cities like Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus in Ohio allow for more cultural and social diversity compared to their rural counterparts.
“Cleveland has a wide range of cultures, a large food scene, some very, very, very good public museums, gardens,” said Kent State junior fashion design major Lily Blackburn, who is from Illinois. “The city’s very beautiful, the architecture is really cool, the nightlife is not bad, the [art] museum is free, [and] the botanical gardens are really cool.”
Still, many Ohioans opt to move to other states.
“If I'm being honest, I would not look here in Ohio for jobs that are inside my major,” said Blackburn, the KSU student.
According to Census data, in 2023, around 18,500 Ohioans moved to Florida and around 13,500 to Texas. (Around the same number of people moved from Florida to Ohio, but only 8,500 Texans moved to Ohio.) Between 11,000 and 13,000 moved to each of Ohio’s neighboring states of Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Indiana.
“If you look at some of where state populations are growing — a lot of the growth over the past couple of decades has taken place in areas in the South. So, Texas and parts of the Carolinas and Florida and Georgia, places like that,” said Jacob Duritsky, vice president of strategy, research and talent at TeamNeo.
According to Duritsky, there’s not a single driving force behind that migration. Factors like diversity, the job market and climate all contribute.
“What's actually happening is our economy is diversifying,” said Jacob Duritsky. In Northeast Ohio, he said, “We're seeing healthcare growing. We're seeing professional services growing. So, along with the decline of manufacturing, that was offset by gains in other industries.”
Some cities, including Cleveland, are finding ways to incentivize younger residents to stay.
“The [Cleveland] Town Alliance has a whole strategy around college retention,” said Duritsky. “We have tens of thousands of students who are going in our institutions. I think one of the best opportunities we have is to start to retain those people in greater numbers.”
Ohio saw its highest-ever total number of jobs in 2024. Duritsky believes that’s key to keeping young people in the state.
“If we can keep our educated young people here by giving them opportunities to find internships and first jobs, by getting them into the community and experiencing all this sort of social and civic life that's here, I think that's one of the ways we start to move the dial,” said Duritsky.
This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.
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