Weekly Roundup | Wanted: Workers. Thousands of them

Welcome to the Weekly Roundup, where we bring you the top stories from today’s Dayton Daily News and major stories from the past week you may have missed.

This week, that includes an effort to get tens of thousands of people into the local workforce to meet a great need for employees in the Dayton region and how a Dayton choreographer approached recreating the setting and themes of “The Nutcracker,” a holiday classic for Dayton families showing at the Schuster Center this month.

Our mission is to help you understand what’s really going on in the Dayton region. This includes comprehensive coverage of local governments and agencies, hard-hitting investigations, and in-depth analyses of important issues.

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Wanted: Workers. Thousands of them. Right now and for years

Credit: Jim Noelker

The good news is that the Dayton region has seen success attracting jobs. The challenge this creates is making sure our workforce is up to the task. Reporter Tom Gnau has this story on a local effort to meet that need.

• The story: A new committee of Dayton-area business leaders is launching what participants hope will be a communitywide effort to grow population, retain graduates and get former and retired workers back into the labor force.

• Goal: The effort led by the Dayton Foundation has set a goal of getting about 23,000 people back into the workforce by 2030, plus attracting and retaining thousands more people to and in the area.

• The need: The Dayton Development Coalition estimates there will be 26,000 net new jobs annually through the year 2030 in a 14-county region around Dayton, and a need to fill some 28,000 recurring openings each year due to natural attrition.

• Demographics: Retirements are part of the issue. Natural aging and retirements creates some 25,000 jobs a year, coalition members said.

• Growth: The region has seen massive new investment as well. A joint venture Honda-LG Energy electric vehicle battery plant is being built, for example, outside Jeffersonville. Sierra Nevada is here and is expanding, building a third and fourth hangar near Dayton International Airport. Joby Aviation has said its Dayton operation won’t operate until next year. DMAX has built a new truck engine plant in Brookville.

• What they’re saying: “We’ve seen nothing like this in our lifetimes,” said Mike Parks, president of the Dayton Foundation.

Dayton Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ reimagined for a new generation

Credit: ron valle

“The Nutcracker” is a holiday tradition in Dayton, but the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance’s show went unchanged since 2013. They set out to change that this year. Russell Florence Jr. takes you behind the scenes.

• Artistic director: The reimagined show was choreographed by Brandon Ragland, artistic director for the Dayton Ballet.

• Local nods: Dayton is part of the new show. Set pieces include a cash register and the Wright Flyer.

• New themes: The Land of Sweets has been updated to The Land of Time with Mother Time replacing Mother Ginger. Act 2 essentially takes place inside of a clock as Clara transforms into or perhaps dreams of her older self.

• A new look: Recognizing Act 1 takes place in the early 1900s, creators were drawn to Art Nouveau, which uses soft, slim, undulating asymmetrical lines and curves often depicting images of nature such as flowers, plants, vines and insect wings.

— Russell’s story has a video of how the costumes were created for the show, and many photos of new sets and costumes.

• A new classic: “It’s always something that families do together during the holiday season so it carries a lot of weight because it’s something people want to see. It also needs to be something that stays just as engaging for the Dayton Ballet for the next 10 years,” Ragland said.

• Final bow: Dayton Philharmonic Artistic Director Neal Gittleman has conducted “The Nutcracker” since 2013. He is retiring at the end of this season.

- “Every year I get a little wistful at the last show, as we play each dance for the last time until 50 weeks roll around,” Gittleman said. “So, I imagine I’ll be ‘wistful-plus’ at this year’s last performance. But honestly, there’s no time to wallow in that wistfulness. I’ve got dancers’ feet to watch and musicians in the pit to serve and that’s where I’ll really be focused.”

• World debut: The show will debut Dec. 13 at the Schuster Center.