Youngstown dispute Forbes’ bleak view of summer jobs in Valley

By Karl Henkel | June 15, 2011 at 12:09a.m.

AUSTINTOWN

The unemployment rate is down, and the temperature is up.

How favorable is it to land a summer job? It depends on whom you ask.

Forbes magazine Tuesday released a list from Manpower Group that detailed the worst metropolitan areas for finding summer jobs.

No. 2 on the list was the Mahoning Valley, predicted to have a paltry 1 percent hiring increase.

But those in the Valley, including job-placement centers, employers and even an economist predict that the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman region has and will continue to see summer employment additions, much as it does every year.

It’s all about timing, said Gloria Mathews, communications director for the Mahoning and Columbiana County One-Stops. She said that a lot of businesses got a jump on summer hiring last month, but opportunities exist throughout the Valley as summer draws near.

“We don’t see this as a bad year or as a stellar year [in terms of summer jobs],” she said. “Things have actually looked better in the last few months. There’s been a nice steady increase across the board.”

George Zeller, a Cleveland-based economist, said that Youngstown, despite its Forbes ranking, should provide a comparatively strong hiring atmosphere.

“The bottom line is the odds of finding summer employment in Youngstown are higher than getting one in other parts the state,” Zeller said. “Getting a summer job in Youngstown is substantially easier than in a place like Columbus.”

Employers offered mixed analysis; some are hiring, and others have already hired.

Akron-based InfoCision hired 100 last month and today is having open interviews to hire 40 more at its New Castle, Pa., location.

“I anticipate we’ll be hiring throughout the rest of 2011,” said Lisa Walton, senior human resources recruiter at InfoCision. “We finally have an optimistic view for what to expect the rest of the year.”

Walton said that despite the 100-person hiring spree in May, the Austintown location could hire as many as 75 more staffers. She said the company will continue its on-the-spot interview process.

Those looking to make a couple extra bucks for a few months might want to try restaurants, which along with construction, annually nets the largest job growth during the June, July and August.

Restaurants in Ohio are expected to add nearly 20,000 jobs over the summer, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Ohio restaurants employed 379,800 in March, and that number is expected to climb 5.2 percent to 399,500 by mid-summer, higher than the national average of 4.6 percent.

Overall, food and beverage establishments expect to create 425,000 summer jobs, the strongest job-creating season for the restaurant industry since 2007.

Local establishment Big Family World Pub, 30 N. State St. in Girard, is seeking waitresses, bartenders and cooks, and chain restaurants, like Buffalo Wild Wings, are also looking for some extra help, though the local locations — in Niles, Austintown, Boardman and Youngstown — have already begun filling out their staff.

“We’ve been hiring pretty aggressively at all four locations since about late March and April,” said Doug Esenwein, regional manager of BW3 said. “We’ve probably added on anywhere from 20 to 30 employees, part-time and full-time.

“We still need a couple odds and end but we’ve started to reach our settling point.”