JobsOhio’s Five-Year Aspirations

In order to continue offering best-in-class service to companies, JobsOhio dedicated a portion of 2018 looking inward at its performance since 2013, highlighting where its model is working while looking for opportunities to chart further progress over the next five years. As part of this analysis, JobsOhio hired McKinsey & Company to conduct an independent performance assessment (IPA) of its performance and operating model, which was published in June 2018. The IPA posed strategic questions that JobsOhio should address, specifically:

• What larger investments can offset some of the headwinds facing Ohio’s economy?
• What strategic initiatives (within target industries and cross-cutting
• areas) are needed to meet critical
• customer needs?
• How can JobsOhio use its flexible and well-resourced platform to creatively attract more innovative companies to Ohio aligned with strategic priorities?

Using these questions as a prompt, the JobsOhio strategy team and JobsOhio Network – with significant stakeholder input – identified new five-year aspirations for the Ohio economy and how JobsOhio – as the lead economic development organization for the state – can enable them across our targeted industries.

• Accelerate Ohio’s growth. Over the next five years, Ohio aims to become a leader in job, income and investment growth, achieving the highest growth rate among Midwest states and becoming one of the top 10 states in the U.S. in terms of growth. JobsOhio, which focuses its efforts on nine targeted industries that collectively comprise 25 percent of total private sector jobs in Ohio, will support this ambition. It will serve as the driving force behind new economic momentum by developing the road map for top 10 job creation and wage growth and collaborating with state, regional and local partners to achieve such performance.
• Enable shared prosperity. With a goal to have all six of Ohio’s regions experience positive job and wage growth, JobsOhio will partner with its regional and local stakeholders and economic development organizations (EDOs) to support regional prosperity and growth.
• Improve Ohio’s resilience. Ohio will have a share of resilient industries, those that are able to maintain their gross domestic product (GDP) growth through all business cycles and are above the U.S. average. JobsOhio will focus attraction efforts and resource allocation to more resilient (and less cyclical) sectors, increasing the state’s share of industries that maintain GDP growth through all business cycles.
• Enhance state brand and competitiveness. Ohio will improve its competitiveness in talent, innovation, infrastructure and brand awareness to address its target sector company needs. To enhance the state’s brand and competitiveness, JobsOhio is exploring an initiative to improve the perception of Ohio by adding high-skilled STEM talent, creating jobs through innovation districts and attracting high-growth, scaleup companies. Efforts will include considering projections related to urban vibrancy, training a middle-skilled workforce and increasing the inventory of authenticated sites.
• Make Ohio a leading state for business. Ohio will improve its attractiveness to businesses and become the most attractive state to do business within the region and one of the top 10 in the U.S. JobsOhio seeks to be recognized as a top EDO globally through best-practice company attraction activities and leadership in programs that enhance state economic competitiveness.

By supporting these five aspirations, JobsOhio further demonstrates the ways it differentiates itself from the competition. By employing sound strategies and taking smart, calculated risks, JobsOhio and its economic development partners across the state will continue to drive job creation and capital investment in Ohio. One of JobsOhio’s values is to “Make a Difference,” and when it makes a difference, customers thrive and Ohio strengthens.