Lordstown’s Auto Industry Is Coming Back. The Jobs? Not So Much

It’s just after 2 p.m., and Justin Brown is waving down the bartender at Ross’ Eatery & Pub, a dimly lit dive in the shadow of the old General Motors Co. assembly plant. It isn’t hard to get her attention. The crowds have thinned since GM closed the factory two years ago, cutting about 3,300 workers and striking another blow to Lordstown and other cities in northeastern Ohio still reeling from the loss of highly paid steel jobs in the 1980s.

When the plant closed, Brown was transferred to a GM facility in Missouri, though he frequently makes the nine-hour ...