Labor Day blessing: Local prosperity rises as U.S. lags

Published: September 6, 2010

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Labor Day always includes a note of melancholy because it's the unofficial end of summer. That note is especially pronounced this year because of a stubborn job market that makes today just another day off for millions of would-be workers -- but not all..

The problem is especially pronounced in most of Northeast Pennsylvania, where the 10.4 percent unemployment rate is higher than the state and national average, Bradford County, however, is the exception. It leads the state in job creation and the unemployment rate at 7.6 percent is the lowest in Northeast Pennsylvania.

In this region the future of job creation may include an element of the past, in the form of natural resources extraction. The burgeoning Marcellus Shale natural gas industry has developed thus far mostly with labor imported from well-developed drilling areas in the South and lower Midwest.

Nevertheless, many existing businesses are prospering and new businesses are starting up. Property owners have benefited from windfall income from natural gas leases and bonuses.

Analyses of the Marcellus Shale field indicate that it could be a 100-year industry for the region, posing the opportunity for jobs directly involved in drilling and extraction, and to a host of related businesses.

But, it is a regional phenomenon and atypical of the nation in general.

It's pretty clear now that the Great Recession was not simply a recession in the conventional sense. Thus, its ensuing recovery has not followed the traditional of fairly steady growth and job creation.

The economy has reset to different parameters than existed before the recession, lowering expectations and creating huge challenges for government and industry.

Some recovery here inevitably relies upon national, even global economic conditions. But there are things that the region can do beyond waiting for a recovery to economic conditions that no longer exist.

Several local colleges and trade schools are training workers for gas-industry jobs.

In anticipation of a more knowledge-based economy, the region also needs to place more emphasis on education itself. The region has one of the lowest percentages of college graduates in the state, creating problems in terms of brain-drain, entrepreneurship and high-skill job creation.

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