United Labor Agency on 1,000 Job Placements and a New Cleveland Office

Dave Megenhardt, Executive Director of the United Labor Agency, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to close out the organization's program year with strong results: 1,002 job placements at an average wage of $23.58 per hour, climbing to $28.78 for workers who completed vocational training before placement.

Megenhardt discussed the healthcare sector's continued dominance as a placement destination in Northeast Ohio, the persistent struggle facing lower-skilled workers piecing together hours across multiple jobs, the cautious and still-undecided posture most employers are taking toward artificial intelligence and the United Labor Agency's own hiring needs for counselors who can guide workers through career transitions with respect and compassion.

Megenhardt also announced the relocation of the agency's largest office, the Ohio Means Jobs center in Cleveland, to a newly renovated building opening today after the previous location was displaced by an interstate expansion project.

• The United Labor Agency completed 1,002 job placements in the program year ending June 30, with an average wage of $23.58 per hour across all placements and $28.78 per hour for individuals who completed vocational training at institutions including Cuyahoga Community College and Cleveland State University before being placed. Healthcare remains the dominant placement sector in Northeast Ohio, driven by sustained long-term growth at the region's major hospital systems, though workers entering at the lowest skill levels still struggle to secure full-time hours and often piece together multiple part-time positions resembling gig work.
• Megenhardt described most employers in the area as still undecided about artificial intelligence implementation, with widespread discussion but few finalized decisions about cost, benefit and workforce impact. He also endorsed the national AFL-CIO's position that workers must be included in AI adoption decisions, drawing a direct parallel to the deindustrialization era and warning against repeating a pattern where market forces alone determined outcomes and left communities in poverty.
• The agency's largest office, the Ohio Means Jobs center, was previously located on Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland. It relocated to a newly renovated building at 1975 E. 61st St., effective today, July 1. The move came after the Ohio Department of Transportation eliminated the previous site's parking lot for a major road project expansion. The new building, a former corporate headquarters left vacant after the pandemic, is fully renovated and light-filled, and the United Labor Agency is actively hiring career transition counselors to staff it and its other locations.

A Strong Year by the Numbers

Dave Megenhardt has been with the United Labor Agency for more than three decades, and the organization has been placing Northeast Ohio workers in jobs since 1971. The agency's program year runs July 1 to June 30, and as that cycle closes, Megenhardt shared the ULA’s performance. The organization made 1,002 placements, completed at an average wage of $23.58 per hour across all clients the agency serves. This included everyone from people who walked in looking for a job to those who needed training first.

That average wage climbs for workers who went through vocational training before landing a position, he added. Workers who upgraded their skills at institutions like Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland State University or proprietary vocational schools in the region averaged $28.78 per hour upon placement — a jump Megenhardt called significant, given the pressure rising costs are putting on working families. The agency's guiding principle is that placing someone in a job that cannot sustain them is not a real placement. The goal is for people to be able to build a life around their new position.

Healthcare's Continued Dominance — and Its Rough Edges

Healthcare remains the strongest sector for placements in Northeast Ohio, a trend Megenhardt does not expect to reverse anytime soon, given the region's three major hospital systems and the long runway of growth ahead. Workers come to the agency wanting to upgrade existing healthcare skills or break into the field for the first time, recognizing it as one of the more durable career paths available.

Megenhardt was equally candid about the sector's challenges at the entry level. Workers trying to break into healthcare at the lowest-skilled positions often struggle to secure full-time hours, ending up with a patchwork of part-time positions that function more like gig work than stable employment. The agency tries to connect workers with employers offering full-time positions with benefits, but acknowledged that it is not always immediately available. The agency does work over time to help people move from that patchwork to something more secure.

Manufacturing also generated opportunities, he said, admitting it was somewhat surprising given broader sector headlines about decline. Retirements and ongoing churn in the existing workforce are creating openings, even as overall manufacturing employment has softened.

AI: A Lot of Talk, Not Many Decisions Yet

Megenhardt described the current employer posture toward artificial intelligence as one of active discussion, with little concrete action. Every employer wants to talk about it. Few have made concrete decisions about implementation, cost or benefit. He characterized the moment as standing on the edge of significant change without yet knowing exactly what that change will look like in practice.

He explicitly endorsed the national AFL-CIO's position that workers must be included in decisions about how AI gets adopted in their workplaces — not left out of a conversation that will directly determine their job security and working conditions. He compared the pending situation to deindustrialization, describing it as a terrible experience. It left workforce disruption entirely to market forces, without proactive planning or worker input, he said, which produced mass unemployment, desperation and rising poverty. Most people now understand the stakes well enough to ask hard questions rather than simply accept reassurances, he added.

ULA Is Hiring — and the Job Requires More Than Skills

The United Labor Agency itself is expanding and actively hiring, particularly for counselors who guide people through career transitions. Megenhardt described the ideal candidate as someone genuinely interested in the economy and how it changes, paired with a deep capacity to relate to people who are often going through one of the harder periods of their working lives. That includes someone laid off from a stable career whose skills are no longer in demand, to someone with a less consistent work history trying to gain a foothold.

The most important requirement for the positions is treating people with respect, dignity and kindness first, with skills training built on top of that foundation. ULA's own workforce is unionized through the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), and Megenhardt described employees as partners and collaborators in delivering the agency's mission, with wages at the top of the industry and benefits he called second to none.

Cleveland’s Ohio Means Jobs Center Finds a New Home

The agency's largest office, the Ohio Means Jobs center, relocated today from Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland to 1975 E. 61st St. The move was forced by a major roadway expansion by the Ohio Department of Transportation, which eliminated the previous site's parking lot.

The new space is a fully renovated former corporate headquarters, vacant since the pandemic, located near the Cleveland Foundation's headquarters and a new Dave's Supermarket. Megenhardt described it as light-filled and beautiful — a space that reflects the dignity people deserve when they walk in during a difficult career transition.

More information on the United Labor Agency is available at ulagency.org.

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