Healthcare, manufacturing, sales and administration occupations are expected to lead the way with most job openings through 2025, according to the Cleveland Plus Economic Review.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Employment in Northeast Ohio is projected to be at 2 million workers by 2025, an increase of 123,000 workers, according to a quarterly report released Tuesday by Team NEO.
Healthcare, manufacturing, sales and administration occupations are expected to lead the way with most job openings through 2025, according to the Cleveland Plus Economic Review. Team NEO is a regional, private-sector group that markets Northeast Ohio and works to attract new business and talent to the region.
"Overall, nearly 640,000 total jobs openings are expected by 2025 due to new job creation and turnover," Bill Koehler, CEO of Team NEO, said in a written statement.
Sales and administrative occupations lead the way in overall job number growth in the next decade, with 155,000 projected openings in positions that cut across all industries. Healthcare related jobs are expected to offer the most growth in one field, with 85,000 new jobs.
"Healthcare continues to be the largest employment sector in Northeast Ohio. And in the coming decade it's going to be more important to our employment base," said Jacob Duritsky, vice president of strategy and research at Team NEO. Jobs include everything from doctors and nurses to medical assistants and jobs in technology.
Occupations with the highest concentration of workers include traditional and growing industries. Production has a 52 percent higher concentration of workers when Northeast Ohio is compared to the U.S. Healthcare support has a 38 percent higher concentration and healthcare practitioner and technical workers combined is 22 percent higher.
The workforce here is older than in the U.S. as a whole, but Northeast Ohio is gaining ground in education. While the region's workforce skews higher in the 45-and-older age group, the education level is increasing with 25 percent of the population holding a bachelor's degree or higher.
"Northeast Ohio has certainly increased the number of people who have at least a bachelors degree, but going forward it's going to be increasingly important that we develop talent to align opportunities in the future," Duritsky said.
"Some of our peer metros like Pittsburgh and Columbus have higher rates of higher educational attainment, and that's who we're competing against."
All of the economic indicators tracked in the report are trending upward year-over-year:
Total Employment is at 1.86 million. Employment is up 17,000 jobs year-over-year to the first quarter of 2015.
The unemployment rate in Northeast Ohio declined 1.4 percent. The unemployment rate averaged 6.2 percent in second quarter 2015, down from 7.6 percent for the same time period in 2014.
All sectors see year-over-year growth. The services sector added more than 10,000 workers from first 2014 to first quarter 2015, while construction gained 2,400 jobs year-over-year and manufacturing added more than 3,400 jobs during the same time period.