YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Brian Wydick is bracing for what’s coming.
The business representative for Operating Engineers Local 66 District 2 says with a sense of urgency that the next four years might be the busiest period the local has ever witnessed. To meet this demand, Wydick says the union has done something unprecedented: it plans to open its apprenticeship application program in August – in addition to its standard enrollment period in January – so it can aggressively begin recruiting a new generation of operators to fill positions in the future.
“At this point, I’m pretty much at peak,” Wydick says, noting 253 operators are now active in the field on various projects across Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties. “It could be four times the peak employment we saw at the cracker plant,” he says, referring to Shell’s multibillion-dollar polyethylene manufacturing plant along the Ohio River near Monaca, Pa. “It could be potentially the busiest time for Local 66 and the Operating Engineers in my lifetime.”
Building trades organizations across the region say training a new workforce is essential to keeping pace with new project activity that is expected to take hold over the next several years. Apprentice programs, outreach efforts, partnerships with signatory contractors and special events designated to draw interest in the trades are helping to boost their numbers.
Big Projects Ahead
Wydick says the largest project looming on the horizon is Kimberly-Clark’s proposed $800 million plant on former Republic Steel land in Howland and Warren townships. However, he’s also hearing some rumblings of future projects in the region that could also be significant.
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Youngstown-Warren metropolitan area employed 8,500 in the mining, logging and construction sector during March, a 10.5% increase from the same period in 2024. The 2025 numbers are also the highest they’ve been over the past 10 years for the month of March, data show.
Operating engineers are trained to drive and maneuver the heavy equipment found at work sites – bulldozers, front loaders, excavators, cranes, backhoes, rollers – that is needed to prepare the property and move construction materials.
Wydick says those looking to become an operating engineer must be at least 18, have a high school diploma or a general education degree and live within Local 66’s jurisdiction. The Local’s seven districts cover 36 counties in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Often, the type of training depends on the industry that the operator supports, Wydick says. “Some industries require you get certifications from the company,” he says.
Local 66’s apprenticeship program is a four-year commitment or 4,000 hours of training, Wydick says. “It’s earn as you learn,” he says. All apprentices must take and pass a drug test to advance in the program, he says.
Operating engineers are not just busy on industrial development sites but are also working on major infrastructure and highway projects throughout the region, Wydick says. These include the widening project along Western Reserve Road, various road paving projects, a new roundabout planned for Austintown Township, an interceptor sewer project in Youngstown and the diamond project at state Route 82 and state Route 46 in Howland.
“Right now, we still have the infrastructure money passed during the Biden administration,” he says. “That money should trickle in over the next eight years, as long as funding doesn’t get displaced or cut. It’s putting American people to work,” he says.
A Talent Pipeline
Efforts to draw more interest in the trades are beginning to pay off for the local crafts and signatory contractors, says Marty Loney, president of the Western Reserve Building and Construction Trades Council and business manager for the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 396.
Loney says that joint initiatives with the Builders Association such as the Skilled Trades Expo at the Canfield Fairgrounds has expanded every year since it was launched in 2019. More than 6,000 high school and middle school students attended over a three-day period in September – a record for the event.
“It’s taken on a life of its own,” Loney says. “Which is really pleasantly surprising.”
The Western Reserve Building Trades membership consists of 16 different crafts and 23 local trade unions.
Loney says another effort underway is a program to introduce high school counselors to the benefits of careers in the building and construction trades so they could pass the information to students who show an interest in the field.
The program is part of a state law enacted last year that mandates licensed school counselors complete four hours of trades-related training during each license renewal cycle, Loney says. In April, the Building Trades and the Builders Association hosted the first of what they hope are continuing breakfast sessions with counselors from the local school districts, he says.
“We had about 74 counselors from different school districts attend,” Loney says. “We had a nice presentation about the opportunities that the trades present,.” The sessions also award continuing education credits to counselors toward their license renewal. “The plan is to do one in the spring and one in the fall,” he says. “We’re sitting pretty good right now.”
Securing large projects such as Kimberly-Clark sends a message to others considering sites for new development, Loney says, which bodes well for future endeavors in the Mahoning Valley. “These are complex projects, and they take time,” he says. “But that opens the door to a lot of other folks that are looking for a place with a great labor pool and highway access to anywhere in the country,” he says.
Starting the Season
Although construction work on the Kimberly-Clark plant has yet to start, there are plenty of ongoing projects in the region to keep the trades busy this summer.
“We’ve got the Amazon project,” says Tony Deley, business manager of Ironworkers Local 207. Deley says that the $30 million project will use approximately 25 of Local 207’s workers at the site, along Perkins-Jones Road in Bazetta Township. The first Ironworkers reported May 19 and have started working on the underground and rebar for the 160,000-square-foot distribution center. “The precast walls are going up now,” he says. “The actual steel won’t be showing up until June. It’s a good size project for the Valley,” he says.
Deley says membership at Local 207 is “99% employed” on projects throughout the region. “We continue to bring on new members from our probationary program to supplement some of the work, depending on their experience.”
Also, Deley says that Local 207 is looking to expand its apprenticeship program during the next school season. “We’re hoping to have 40 or 50 in the class,” he says. “We’re signing up in the late spring, and then our classes start around October.”
Ironworkers provide the structural steel and rebar used to reinforce a building or concrete. In addition to the Amazon project, Local 207 is in the early stages of an expansion at Ellwood Steel’s plant in New Castle, Pa.
Deley says that business for the construction trades has boomed over the last seven to 10 years, with the exception of a lull in 2020 and a slight slowdown in 2024.
“It looks like we’re back on track,” Deley says. “We’re going to have multiple excellent years in the Mahoning Valley.”