It’s more than six months into the business year. How is your business prospering this year? Tom Gnau is on vacation this week and it’s my honor to bring you the latest business news and what it means for the Dayton region. Contact me at rich.gillette@coxinc.com if you have an idea for a business story. I can smell the barbeque and green onion chips already The smell of potato chips will be in the air in the next two years. Work on the former General Motors paint shop facility on Springboro Pike that would pave the way for snack foods manufacturer Shearer’s Foods to move in could start as early as this fall. Shearer’s is projecting it will spend a little more than $100 million on the project, according to city documents. Shearer’s has 16 manufacturing facilities in Ohio, Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Iowa and in Canada, in Ontario and Alberta. It has a distribution center is in Massillon. It aims to relocate an existing, out-of-state manufacturing location to Ohio. The project would roll out more than 162 jobs in 2025, with 44 positions expected in 2026 and 44 in 2027, Davis previously said. May was good, but 2024 is not great for Dayton job growth so far Employers in the Dayton region stepped up hiring in May, and the local economy posted its highest monthly job gains since the fall of last year, according to preliminary federal labor data. However, the local economy overall has lost jobs in the first five months of this year, and the region has cut workers or saw very weak job growth or no gains in about 11 of the last 16 months. WHAT’S HAPPENING: “I think that Dayton, like the state, has ended its (pandemic) recovery and is now in this phase where it sometimes gains, sometimes loses jobs,” said Michael Shields, economist and senior researcher with liberal-leaning Policy Matters Ohio. “One important distinction is that Dayton has not fully recovered the jobs lost to COVID-19, but if you set aside the big growth areas (Columbus and Cincinnati), then Dayton looks very similar to Ohio overall.” Inviting me to cookout is more expensive this year: I’m worth it Meats — specifically, ground beef, pork chops, and chicken breast — account for half of cookout costs, according to the American Farm Bureau. Ground beef is up 11% compared to 2023, largely due to the cattle industry becoming much smaller than in previous years. GOOD NEWS: Chicken breast has declined in the past year, down from an average of $4.236 in May 2023 to $4.118 in May 2024, but prices went up close to 10 cents in May 2024 compared to the multi-year low of $4.060 in November 2023. Tickets to see ‘Hamilton’ at Schuster Center on sale now: Here’s how to buy Rookie has a blast in first start: Hinds shine in Reds debut | 
