Impact of the Welcome Dayton program on the Dayton economy

We made a podcast focusing on immigration into the Dayton area. Recently through the efforts of the Welcome Dayton program, there has been influx of immigration from many different foreign countries. Dayton has put so much emphasis on immigration because of the benefits they bring. They bring growth to the local economy, and people like economic growth. But that’s not all they bring. During our interview with Dayton Mayor Gary Leitzell, we learned how they have given life to the poorer housing in the community, giving it color and warmth. The state of the community overall has improved. We believe that this growth will flourish in Dayton, and then spread through all of Ohio.

Autumn on the recidivism rate of ex-convicts

Ex-cons getting out of jail and going into the workforce, how will this affect the economy?
The national rate of recidivism is about forty-five percent; Ohio’s recidivism rate is lower than the national rate and has been decreasing for the past seven years. Recidivism is a relapse into crime.
The recidivism rate for Ohio was thirty-nine point five percent in two thousand and three.
In two thousand and eight the rate decreased to thirty-one point two percent, and in two thousand and nine the rate decreased to twenty-eight point seven percent.
A study found that incarceration declined the subsequent employment rates by fifteen to thirty percentage points.
Throughout the research that has been done I noticed that when ex-cons are in jail it decreases the employment rate and increases the unemployment rate.
I would like to introduce Mrs. Sandy Monfort, she is the Reentry Coordinator at the West Central Ohio Reentry Coalition. She helps people that are getting out of jail to get a job and get back into a life they can live in.

Kennan and Evan on sequestration's impact

In our research for our podcast we found much information about the impact of the sequestration. We found employment statistics about WPAFB, such as how many people (both military and civilian) work there, how many lost jobs due to sequestration, and how many faced pay cuts. We also found out about some of the programs outside of WPAFB which were unaffected, such as the Pentagon's IT department.

We interviewed Jordan Adams because he worked on base and, as it turns out, he was one of the temporary workers who was put out of a job because of sequestration.

Kala on gas prices

For my podcast I started with researching a few of the different types of research I've done involved looking up information about how gas prices are increasing can be affecting people that put a lot of their money into their tank (if they drive a lot). Some other research that I've done involved comparing gas prices and looking up a few things about hybrid cars and peoples opinion on why they think the gas is increasing and who they think is at fault for this.

Shelby and Joanna on the Dayton Economy

Shelby and Joanna discuss the Dayton economy on their podcast.

Riddhi and Olivia on the effect of NCR leaving Dayton

Our podcast focuses on the effect that businesses leaving has on the local economy. The article we began our research with discusses what Dayton’s economy has gone through since the start of the 20th century up until 2008. It talks about how Dayton was “Once a beacon of manufacturing success”. It goes through examples of famous people and events that took place in Dayton throughout the course of history over the given period of time. These examples include but aren’t limited to The Wright Brothers, Dayton being home to the largest concentration of General Motors employees outside of Michigan, then home to some of the current Fortune 500 companies, and home to visionaries. The article also discusses the descent of Dayton’s economy; how thousands of manufacturing jobs and plants disappeared and left Dayton’s once booming economy dry which also lead to the plunge in Dayton’s population size and decrease in employment rates.

After a discussion with Mr Grieve, he suggested that we focus on one specific company, rather than doing a broad idea. We found out that NCR left Dayton in 2009. When we looked at the graphs of Dayton employment and unemployment rates in Dayton from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was a fast peak of unemployment right as NCR announced it was leaving. We found this interesting and decided to use it in our podcast.

We chose Mr. McGrath to interview because he is the Beavercreek City Planner, and therefor has had a wide range of experiences, including the coming and going of companies. We thought he would know that people's reactions and effects on the area better than anyone. Though Beavercreek is not Dayton, it is near Dayton. In addition, we could take the things he says about Beavercreek and extrapolate them to Dayton and NCR.

Tanner and Hannah on the Affordable Care Act

Our podcast began by researching two articles we discovered that provided two views on Obamacare's effect on small businesses and their employees' healthcare. One article, "Administration Hits Pause On Health Exchanges For Small Businesses," claimed that workers of small businesses would need to wait longer to be able to choose from a series of plans. Under Obamacare, these employees basically have only one choice of healthcare, and it's "less attractive" to employees. The other article claimed that small businesses were fearing the passing of the Affordable Care Act, as it would make providing healthcare to employees much more expensive than it needs to be. For example, for a small business in Iowa, the amount of money the owner would need to spend on healthcare for employees will jump from $140,000 a year to over $500,000 a year. Small businesses would be required to provide only one healthcare plan to employees under Obamacare, or pay a penalty.

We need your help!

I recently sent the following message to our business partners, but would like help from a larger audience. Please take the time to read and fill out if you would be interested in helping us!

My Economics class is doing a project where students research the impact that macroeconomic issues have on the local economy by "making the data real" through personal interviews. As part of the project, students research a macroeconomic phenomena, like "the impact of the sequester on WPAFB" or "the unemployment situation" in the Dayton region, and then interview someone who is affected by or understands the issue well. The final product will be put online so others can listen to it through iTunes - previous work can be found here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dayton-regional-stem-school/id581542988?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo=4

The project duration period is roughly from March 25th through April 12th. We would like to streamline partner involvement by asking you to fill out the form (below) to discuss your willingness to be interviewed by students for 10-15 minutes and give them an idea of what areas you might be able to speak on. Some of you have done this already, and we would appreciate you filling out the form if you are willing to participate again this year and in the future. The topics are very broad, and are only limited to economics in the sense that students must somehow show a connection to the local economy, so if you are an industry leader who has knowledge on the defense contracts in the area, great! If you are a small business owner who understands how the job market is changing, or a trade industry worker who can talk about how technology is changing the kinds of jobs that are locally available, we can use your help! We would like to create a database of people that we can talk to in the future, so whatever you can think of that might be useful, please let us know, or just list your occupation and industry, and students who have questions you haven't thought of may think of a reason for wanting your input. The most important thing is that you're willing to help for 10 minutes over the phone.

Thanks, and if you have any questions please contact Arch Grieve at arch.grieve@wright.edu

Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15i25YAcN8bgCWsMzkt75R5ruVMyOQx9e4EQo0euNiqg/viewform