[sammyg2]

Oil refining. it's not the safest or very glorious, but it is very rewarding in other ways.

The new MEs we've hired over the past few years are definately not starving, but they can't afford to buy a home here.
What they usually do is work for a while and get some experience, go to school at night to get their MBA (company pays for it) and after a 3 or 4 years they try to transfer to another location where the cost of living is much less. With the salary they've built up in LA they can live very well in other locations. Plus after they've established themselves in the industry (assuming they are good performers) they can pretty much write their own ticket to anywhere there is a refinery. As in most industries, good qualified experienced engineers are in high demand.

There are 4 refineries in Ohio:
Marathon Petroleum Company, Canton, Ohio 73,000 bpd
Husky Energy, Lima, Ohio 158,400 bpd
BP, Toledo, Ohio 160,000 bpd
Sunoco, Toledo, Ohio 160,000 bpd

Aa occasional visit to their websites to check for openings might be worthwhile.
Usually the larger capacity refineries offer more job security because the smaller ones tend to be less profitable.