Starting a new career? Start in Ohio, report says

Turns out Ohio is the place to launch a career, at least according to the job search site Monster.

It ranked the best cities for young workers based on housing affordability and job prospects. Nine out of the top 10 are in the Great Lakes region, and five are in Ohio.

“When you look at Ohio, it has major hubs for education, for meds, aerospace, technology,” said Vicki Salemi, the career expert at Monster who wrote the report.

Salemi used to be a job recruiter who remembers sifting through piles of resumes. She said the piles were much higher in New York City and other major hubs. “I wish the candidates knew to apply to these outliers because there's less competition,” she said.

Less competition translates to a much healthier job market.

“We have had sub-3.5% unemployment now for 3.5 years running, and that's even lower for those with college degrees”, said Baiju Shah, president of a northeast Ohio regional chamber of commerce.

His organization, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, puts on a career fair called CollegeFest at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame every year to help employers find young people to fill entry-level jobs.

“Talent is the issue when you've been running below 3.5% unemployment for three years, and you've got no end in sight to your demand,” Shah said.

Cleveland earned the number five spot on Monster’s list. But recruiters say a job offer is not enough to lock in an early-career employee for the long term. What comes after that first job is a top concern for entry-level workers who decide to stay.

“Growth and development is one of the questions that we get all the time. They're looking for, ‘am I going to be able to move around? Will I be able to advance? Like, what other opportunities are available for me once I get in?’” said Charles Donaldson, an early talent recruiter at the Cleveland-based paint company Sherwin Williams.

It’s the same kind of questions at the booth for Ohio-based jelly and jam company J.M. Smucker.

“They want to know, ‘Do you have employee resource groups? What do you do for the interns? Do you offer professional development? Do you offer social opportunities and networking opportunities?’” said Kelly Brucker Davis, who manages the company’s emerging talent.

Some of the young people at this event are happy with the answers they’re getting.

“I think it's just a really good place to start my young professional life,” said Yennie Seong, a senior at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She’s from Philadelphia, but she’s planning to stick around the Lake Erie shore after she graduates.

“There's a lot of new companies that are starting up that are getting based in Cleveland or in the surrounding cities,” she says, “And I built a really great community of friends that I'm not sure I'd be able to find somewhere else.”

Plus there’s the whole buy-a-house-for-under-a-quarter-million-dollars thing.

“Kids go to school, and then will move to a large city where opportunities abound, but then the cost of living and other considerations quickly set in,” said David Carter. He went to Northeastern University and originally had every intention of staying in the Northeast.

“I was studying more marine science in Boston,” he said. “During the strange time that was the pandemic, I moved home and finished remotely.”

So he started applying for local internships, and one of the places he applied ended up offering him a full-time job. He’s been there for about two years, and has no plans to leave Cleveland.

“It gets overlooked,” he said. “But it's nice to come back to somewhere that feels a little more grounded and like home.”