Dayton : Buzz

A national study on high-tech jobs released Thursday shows that Ohio is quickly establishing itself as a hub of high-tech job activity. The Buckeye State is home to three of the top 25 cities for tech job growth -- more than any other state.

Read the full story here.

Information technology is perhaps one of the most under appreciated fields in the Dayton region, at least by the public.

IT companies in the Dayton region seem to be booming, as seen by increases in salaries, hiring and new investments.

Read the full story here.

Recently, FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron recommended to the Ohio Legislature changes to Ohio's energy efficiency portfolio that would essentially freeze the energy efficiency mandate found in Senate Bill 221 at current levels. As currently written, Senate Bill 221 calls for Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) to undertake energy efficiency improvements by 2025 equal to 22% of 2008's energy consumption. FirstEnergy's proposed changes would end the mandate at the less than 3% cumulative reduction required to date.

Ohio's Legislature should consider carefully any request to alter Ohio's course on energy efficiency. For many reasons, a reduction in the energy efficiency goal does not appear to be a good idea at this time.

Read the full story here.

Chrysler Group LLC is hiring more than 1,100 new workers at its sprawling Toledo, Ohio, manufacturing complex. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is looking for hundreds of bankers in Columbus. And the Cleveland Clinic has been adding registered nurses at such a clip that it rented out the Cleveland Browns football stadium for a job fair.
Long an emblem of rust belt decay and despair, Ohio is now outpacing the national economy.

Read the full story here.

The nation’s wind energy industry is growing, and that’s helping Ohio, according to a new report by an environmental group. The Natural Resources Defense Council says its new study finds that a wind farm, consisting of something like 10 wind turbines, creates a lot of jobs.

Read the full story here.

Read the full story here.

"For investors looking to go off the beaten track to find quality deals, Ohio might be the answer," Mitchell Rosich, partner at Athenian Venture Partners, writes in VentureBeat.

"According to the most recent Ohio Venture Capital Report, venture capital activity in Ohio was up more than 80 percent in 2010, surpassing the national average, which was up only 20 percent."

Read the rest here.

There is a growing disparity among cities that have a surfeit of college graduates, like Washington, and those, like Dayton, Ohio, that are trying to attract more grads, an analysis by the Brookings Institution indicated. College graduates are increasingly important economic drivers, particularly in cities that have largely lost their manufacturing sectors and the accessible jobs they provide.

Read the story here.

WALKING isn’t just good for you. It has become an indicator of your socioeconomic status. Read the full story here.

On Wednesday, April 18, the crowdfunding industry’s 13 top debt and equity crowdfunding platforms and industry experts met to create a Statement of Intent for a lasting organization that will champion, advocate for, and represent the global crowdfunding industry. Two days later, this group—the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Association, or CFIRA—presented its Statement of Intent to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).  CFIRA’s complete Statement of Intent can be found on www.Crowdsourcing.org.

The Angel Capital Association (ACA) and Angel Resource Institute (ARI) have named John Huston as the recipient of the 2012 Hans Severiens Award. For more info, click here.

The University of Dayton Research Institute will participate in a research and development consortium of six Ohio companies and organizations who will provide new composite materials, products and technologies to Airbus. Read the story here.

The Dayton Development Coalition has been commissioned by the state of Ohio to help develop an industry for unmanned aerial vehicles and their electronic equipment, in addition to devising a strategy to protect and retain jobs at Ohio’s military facilities.

Ohio will be up against competitors in California, New Mexico, Florida, Texas and other states with Air Force bases and aerospace development. See full story here.

Southwestern Ohio is the newest breeding ground for the United States military high-tech defense mechanism--the drone. At the Springfield Air National Guard base, they're working on becoming ground control operations for the MQ-1 Predator after being awarded a new mission from the Department of Defense and Air Force.

Drones, or pilotless jets, are the newest weapon of choice for the U.S. Read more here.