Policy Matters Ohio says President Trump has a long way to go before delivering on his promise to restore blue-collar jobs in the state.
The left-leaning group’s newest Blue-Collar Jobs report finds that since December, Ohio has lost more than 2,000 manufacturing jobs. While it says the state has added more than 8,000 construction jobs, researcher Hannah Halbert says Ohio needs to add nearly 84,000 blue collar jobs to reach pre-recession levels.
“We’re not really much different than where we are back in, say in March of last year," Halbert says. "It’s really early in the (Trump) administration to expect all of that 84,000 back. But there’s not a lot happening that signals we’re going to see some sort of big renaissance.”
She adds that Trump administration labor policies limiting protections for workers will likely hurt blue-collar jobs and many other workers in the state.
