Greater Akron Job Hubs September 2017

Introduction and Context Transportation influences and is influenced by economic development decisions The pattern of our region’s historical development has created efficiency challenges both for businesses and employees (job access) A better understanding of where jobs and infrastructure exist can influence AMATS policy decisions Job hubs research conducted in partnership with the Fund For Our Economic Future provides new information to help us think about these questions

What is The Fund for Our Economic Future? Growth & Opportunity

High Poverty Neighborhoods The challenge of job access Jobs are moving farther from people Akron MSA ranked 84th out of the 96 MSAs studied in terms of the change in the number of nearby jobs for MSA residents Decline in number of nearby jobs particularly extreme for residents of high-poverty neighborhoods Number of jobs near average resident Akron MSA; 2000-2012; thousands of jobs 2000 2012 -22% 120 112 100 -14% 87 80 80 69 60 40 20 All Neighborhoods High Poverty Neighborhoods Source: “The growing distance between people and jobs in metropolitan America”; The Brookings Institute May 2015 ; measured by number of jobs within the median commute distance of the center point of each census tract. Median commute based on Cleveland MSA commuting patterns.

Our development patterns impact our region’s residents Housing and transportation share of income NEO cities % Income Spent on Housing Costs % Income Spent on Transportation Costs Akron Elyria Lorain Cleveland Canton Youngstown In all above cities, transportation costs a higher share of income than housing Source: Center for Neighborhood Technology’s H+T Affordability Index tool

They hamper our business competitiveness Ranking of challenges to making new employees successful 1 = Most challenging Challenge Mean Attendance/Showing Up Ready to Work on Time 2.39 Ability to learn (e.g., acquiring the right skills and experience for the job) 2.92 Willingness to Learn New Skills 3.21 Behavioral Issues (e.g., attitude, substance abuse, employee conflicts) 3.23 Attrition due to workers moving on to another employer 3.79 Organized Labor Requirements 5.47 Source: Team NEO starting wage and benefit survey

Growing in dense job hubs can help mitigate these trends Job Hubs are... Contiguous places... ...with highly concentrated employment... ...and multiple different employers... ...participating in the ‘traded sector’ of our economy

Why focus on the traded sector? Companies that trade with people and businesses outside local economy (e.g. manufacturing, professional services, etc.); distinct from ‘population serving’ businesses Wages1 Spill-over2 Accessible $69k: traded sector 2.4 jobs added for every 1 new traded job Opportunities exist for college-educated as well as high-school educated workers $32k: local serving 0.5 jobs added for every 1 new local-serving job 1: Based on EMSI average annual wages in 18 county NEO; 2: Based on EMSI calculations for direct jobs added in 18-county NEO; 3: Based on top 40 traded sector and non-traded sector occupations across 18 county NEO, representing 48% and 72% of all traded and non-traded sector employment, respectively; based on EMSI job postings data from January 2016 – March 2017

Job hubs contain over 50% of the MSA’s traded sector jobs Akron MSA: Job Hubs There is a strong relationship between transportation assets and the region’s job hub locations Akron MSA job hubs, major roads and highways Job hubs contain over 50% of the MSA’s traded sector jobs Source: LODES LEHD 2014 Data

Profile: Twinsburg Job Hub

Profile: Twinsburg Job Hub (1970)

Akron MSA: Job Hubs by Industry and Size Downtown Akron is the largest healthcare job hub and also contains the most office and professional jobs Traded sector and healthcare jobs by job hub 2014, thousands of jobs Downtown Akron Twinsburg East Akron / Airport Hudson / Stow Aurora / Streetsboro Chapel Hill Cuyahoga Falls Akron-Canton Airport Richfield Green Gilchrist Road Manufacturing Firestone Park Other Industrial Barberton Office & Professional Brimfield Healthcare 5 10 15 20 25 Source: LODES LEHD 2014 Data

Location of growing and shrinking hubs illustrates job access challenge Shrinking core city hub

Fastest growing hubs often far from core city

For consideration: Our area has well established job hubs – future job hubs stretch resources as new infrastructure is demanded Transit traditionally has trouble serving job hubs outside central cities– how can transit better serve existing job hubs? What can be expected from transit when new hubs develop? Businesses need to understand where it’s workforce comes from and challenges associated with access

For consideration: AMATS has a role to play – transportation and economic development investments are related This research raises interesting questions: Where are traded sector economic assets located, and where are AMATS’ past (and future) investments located? How do they overlap? What are the trade-offs between investments that may lead to ‘new’ hubs vs. investments in existing hubs? Do opportunities exist for closer collaboration with local, county and regional economic development organizations?