HANCOCK COUNTY, OH (Toledo News Now) - A lot of companies in Hancock County are looking for workers, and it's having a positive impact on unemployment rates.
Jobs in manufacturing are putting people back to work in the county. Jobless rates are going down, largely thanks to warehouse operations.
"Our business is good, it's excellent right now," said Terry Reinhart, owner of Centrex Plastics, LLC. "We're adding process techs, we're looking for maintenance people, tow motor operators, material handlers and press operators."
Reinhart says as his business expands, serving local companies, he wants to continue hiring local.
"We're looking for good, skill-level people – middle class jobs," he said.
Apparently, finding people with skills is not hard in Hancock County. State figures released for July show that unemployment has dropped from 7.2 percent to 6.1 percent.
Officials at Job Solutions say those numbers aren't surprising.
"We've seen a lot of job growth within especially the last year," said Carolyn Rodenhauser at Job Solutions. "And we're seeing a lot of hirings in the community, so we're ecstatic about that. We want to see it go down even more."
In June, 400 local workers landed jobs. Many of those positions were with Nissin Brakes, based in Findlay.
"They plan to hire 300 people. That's huge numbers for a county this size," Rodenhauser said.
As for Ohio as a whole, numbers are staying flat. Unemployment rates remain unchanged at 7.2 percent.
