Employers in Ohio are hiring again

After months of basically no job growth in Ohio, there are signs that the state’s employers are starting to hire again.

Ohio employers added 10,300 jobs last month, according to Ohio Department of Job and Family Services data released Friday. That follows a gain of 9,600 jobs in November.

Ohio’s jobless rate held steady at 4.9 percent in December for the third straight month.

The job gains would have been stronger if not for the loss of 4,300 state government jobs last month.

“It’s no surprise at all,” Gordon said. “This is par for the course.”

Columbus-based Bravo Brio, which owns the Brio and Bravo Italian restaurant chains, has been on a long decline in sales and customer traffic. The slide has pummeled its stock price, which closed Friday at $4. A year ago, the stock was trading above $8 a share, and two years ago, it was trading at $15 a share.

The company was ripe for an activist to dive in.

Adam has not spelled out his goals.

“We believe that the company has great potential,” Adam wrote in the letter, “and we look forward to working ... to unlock shareholder value.”

Adam’s letter is not critical of the company’s management and does not pick at its performance, in contrast to activist investor Thomas Sandell’s approach to Bob Evans Farm.

“It could be a fix-up or a sell,” Gordon said, pointing out that Adam doesn’t have restaurant experience and isn’t a known player in the industry.

Adam said in the letter that he plans to be a long-term shareholder. Only one of his handpicked candidates has restaurant experience. William Dusek and James Wolfe are executives at TAC Capital. The third candidate, Jimmy Loup, is CEO of Grub Burger Bar, a small, better-burger chain.

Asking for three seats would give Adam a big voice without overplaying his hand, Gordon said.

“It isn’t as big of a lift as a majority would be,” he said.

At Bob Evans, Sandell petitioned for a majority of its board seats in 2015 and came away with four of 11.

Bob Evans’ new board pushed out then-CEO Steven Davis and hired Bravo Brio’s former CEO, Saed Mohseni, to take his place.

Much of Sandell’s agenda has been acted on, including selling and then leasing back real estate and cutting costs. He has been less successful in pressing for the sale or spinoff of Bob Evans’ prepared-food division.

Bravo Brio has fewer assets to squeeze because it does not own much real estate or have a packaged-foods business. It does share one thing with Bob Evans: the weakness of the casual-dining market segment.

“Casual dining has been sinking for at least a decade, but the last two or three years, it has been atrocious,” Gordon said. “They are all in a difficult space.”

Bravo Brio holds its annual meeting, in which directors are elected, in May.