Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries and the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber have partnered to study workforce needs in the region.

The community needs assessment, which lasts through Aug. 9, will include survey responses given to about 3,000 chamber members, other stakeholders and the public, plus focus group discussions. All of that information will be analyzed and paired with data from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Labor.

Its purpose, according to a press release Wednesday, is to “better grasp current and future employment demands and barriers faced by residents” and to promote a “vibrant, economically strong community by identifying key areas for workforce development.”

Goals include developing partnerships with stakeholders, identifying funding opportunities, enhancing community awareness of services and performing data-driven asset mapping and gap analysis, the release states.

Also, stakeholders will be engaged to develop an action to address training gaps and barriers “ultimately empowering citizens with sustainable economic independence through employment and training opportunities” through Goodwill and other nonprofits.

“This assessment will provide the data and insights needed to enhance current workforce development initiatives and create a roadmap for impactful programs that help individuals overcome employment barriers, empowering them and strengthening our local economy,” Shelley Murray, interim CEO of Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries, said.

Said Guy Coviello, chamber president and CEO, “We are hopeful that this initiative will help pinpoint employment and training barriers so that we can create a community-wide action plan to overcome them. That will enable us and our partners to grow the local workforce and ultimately strengthen the economic fabric of northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.”

According to the release, job and related-data in the region includes:

• Only 57% of the 343,870-member local civilian labor force have jobs, but in Ohio and across the U.S., the labor participation rate is more than 63%, according to Census Bureau data for 2018-2022 analyzed by Goodwill Industries.

• 37.8% of 25- to 64-year-olds who live in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, and Mercer and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania, ended their formal education with a high school diploma, according to census and labor department data. In Ohio, the number is 30.1% and the U.S., it is 25.1%,

• The region’s poverty rate outpaces that of Ohio and the nation, and the annual average salary of $12,733 per year is lower here than elsewhere in Ohio and $21,302 lower here than the rest of the U.S.

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