License suspensions could be costing Ohio a big chunk of its workforce

When Ohioans’ get their driver’s licenses suspended, it could negatively affect the state’s economy.

That’s according to a study released this spring co-authored by Kyle Fee, doctoral student in CSU’s Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs and policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, and Brian Mikelbank, associate professor in Urban Studies in the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education.

The report estimates that about 830,000 people would be at risk of leaving the state’s labor force because of these suspensions.

In 2022, a Legal Aid Society of Cleveland study found that over 1.7 million drivers had their licenses suspended, but not for reasons you might think. Bad driving accounts for less than half of those suspensions and 60% are due to debts, many of which are related to driving and others like child-support delinquencies and court judgements.

That same study also reported that nearly half with suspended licenses had more than one suspension and that 75% had been suspended for more than year.

It creates an unescapable cycle of mounting debts and prolonged suspensions, Fee and Mikelbank wrote.

“Our analysis suggests that these suspensions, especially when combined with increasing driver’s license requirements, make finding and maintaining employment more difficult for a sizable portion of Ohioans, but that instability also affects the broader economy.”

The author’s conservative estimates are that 14% (or 830,000) of those with suspended licenses would comply with the driving restrictions, leading to the reduction in workforce.

“Fewer people in the labor force means fewer people to hire and fewer people to produce and consume goods and services.”