CINCINNATI AREA IS ONE OF THE NATION’S FASTEST GROWING CONSTRUCTION JOB MARKETS AS REGION ADDS MORE JOBS THAN ALL BUT ONE OTHER AREA THIS YEAR

Area Construction Employment Grows by 11 Percent Between June 2024 and June 2025 as Local Firms Add 5,800 Jobs, Construction Groups Outline Steps to Recruit More People into High-Paying Construction Careers
 
The Cincinnati metro added more new construction jobs during the past year than every metro area in the U.S. except for one, despite widespread labor shortages for the industry, according to an analysis released by the Associated General Contractors of America today. As local construction firms expand their payrolls, the national association and its local chapters are taking steps to recruit the next generation of construction workers while pushing for more federal workforce development support, officials noted.
 
“As demand for construction grows here and in many other parts of the country, more firms are having a difficult time finding enough qualified workers,” said Brian Turmail, the national spokesman for the Associated General Contractors of America. “Yet contractors in Cincinnati are showing the rest of the industry that there are ways to recruit more people into construction.”
 
Turmail noted that the Cincinnati metro area added 5,800 construction jobs between June 2024 and June 2025, an 11 percent increase. The area added more construction jobs than all but one of the 360 metro areas the association tracks and at a faster rate than all but 4 of those metros. There were 60,200 people working in construction in the Cincinnati area in June, up from 54,400 in June 2024.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) provides workers’ compensation coverage based on estimated payroll. Therefore, at the end of the policy year, BWC asks employers to report their actual payroll for the prior policy year and pay any shortage (or receive a refund for any overage) in premiums. This process is called a true-up. If the true-up is not completed in a timely, the following may occur:
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• Employer will not be eligible for prior-year rebates and incentives
• Employer will be removed from the current year programs
• Employer will become ineligible for programs the following year and will continue to remain ineligible for all future years until all past true-ups are completed.

How to report payroll and complete the true-up
Although employers may contact BWC at (800) OHIO-BWC (800.644.6292) and complete their true-up report over the phone, BWC anticipates high call volumes and long wait times. They strongly encourage employers to complete their true-up report online through their BWC e-account at www.bwc.ohio.gov. If you do not have an e-account, select the Create E-Account Link to begin. You will need your BWC policy number and/or Federal Tax Identification Number. 

Deadlines
Private employers: The true-up report must be completed and payment received by no later than August 31, 2025.

Please note: There is no longer a grace period. True-up and payment (if owed) must be POSTED by the deadline date.

If you have any questions, contact our Sedgwick program manager, Dave Deyo, at [email protected].

​Guest content provided by Sedgwick