Wages, Employment, and STEM Education in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia: Report No. 2 (2017)

The Appalachia Partnership Initiative's Investments in K–12 Education and Catalyzing the Community: Reflections from 2014 Through 2017

“…2 Gonzalez et al (2015Gonzalez et al ( , 2017; Gonzalez, Culbertson, and Nanda (2017); and Bozick et al (2017) found that, in interviews and surveys employers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, people reported difficulty in filling STEM jobs and attracting talent, especially in for middle-skilled jobs that require STEM skills.…”

“…3 See Gonzalez et al ( , 2017 for more information about the shrinking working-age population in the 27 API counties: Most counties in the API region experienced a decrease in the working-age population. Furthermore, Gonzalez et al ( , 2017 and Gonzalez, Culbertson, and Nanda (2017a) note that given the impending retirements of large cohorts of older workers, if the demand for middle-skilled workers remains the same as it was at the time of this study (in 2018), the growing need for a STEM-skilled workforce is likely to intensify. The aging workforce could more deeply affect workforce needs in the energy sector; nearly 25 percent of workers employed in extraction and production occupations are over age 55 and nearing retirement (Porter, Gee, and Pope, 2015).…”

Occupational Credentials for Jobs in the Subbaccalaureate Economy: The Case of the Emerging Energy Sector in Ohio

“…During this period of increasingly low unemployment there was a dramatic expansion in the energy sector, with jobs in oil and natural gas extraction doubling from 2010 to 2015. However, this boom created an oversupply in natural gas, resulting in a decrease in prices and with it a reduction in new extraction efforts (Gonzalez et al, 2017). As a result, the number of oil and natural gas extraction jobs in the northeast quadrant of the state declined from a high of 1,051 at the end of 2015 to 601 at the end of 2017.…”

“…Already a well-established hub of fossil fuel energy extraction and production, since 2011 natural gas resources have further driven the development of Ohio's energy sector (Gonzalez et al, 2017). The region is also home to a burgeoning and varied energy economy in upstream, midstream, and downstream segments of the industry, including innovations in energy storage (Gonzalez et al, 2015).…”