If you're out of work, are you out of luck?

One-third of the area's manufacturing jobs have been cut since 1997.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
Open jobs are everywhere in the Mahoning Valley.
The trouble is that they either demand too much training or pay too little.
"We've got a lot of jobs at the high end and a lot of jobs at the low end," said Don Curry, state labor market analyst in Youngstown. "But we don't have a lot of jobs in the middle."
Those "middle" jobs sustained the Valley for decades, offering good pay for people right out of high school.
Many of those jobs came at area steel mills and then at General Motors in Lordstown and at car parts plants operated throughout the Valley by Delphi Packard Electric Systems.
Those sorts of jobs are hard to find these days.
A second steel crisis has swept through the Valley in recent years. CSC Ltd., a Warren steel mill, closed in 2001 and eliminated 1,300 jobs. Another Warren mill, WCI Steel, is losing money and fighting to stay out of bankruptcy and save its 1,800 jobs.
Cutting jobs
GM and Packard are healthier, but they are cutting jobs at a furious pace. In 1998, GM and Packard employed a total of 16,300 hourly workers. Now, they employ 11,600 as retirees haven't been replaced.
The companies can cut jobs because they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in new and renovated plants to become more efficient. New equipment means more output with fewer people.
Reid Dulberger, executive vice president of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, said manufacturers throughout the Valley are on the same quest for efficiency because most are in mature industries such as automotive. Without growing markets, they seek better technology to boost efficiency and profits.
Valley companies have cut more than 18,000 manufacturing jobs since 1997. In the first three months of this year, the Valley averaged 40,600 manufacturing jobs, down nearly one-third from six years ago.
"Some of those jobs clearly have been lost forever," Dulberger said.
Fewer jobs
The total number of jobs also is down. During the first quarter of this year, the Valley averaged 229,800 jobs, which was down 8 percent from the 248,700 jobs the area had in 1999.
Monthly figures show, however, that the number of jobs has stabilized.
"It looks like the bleeding may have stopped," Dulberger said.
The national economy has improved, and Dulberger is watching to see how many jobs are added by companies, especially manufacturers.
"Will we see a robust recovery? That is the question, and I don't know the answer," he said.
Training is the key to getting a position as the economy improves, Curry said. Some technical training or an associate degree is needed to get a better-paying position, he said.
shilling@vindy.com