ARTICLE
How low can it go? The Lehigh Valley’s unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent in May, a depth not plumbed in more than a decade and a reminder of the region’s tight labor market. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry said Tuesday that the decline was one-half of a percentage point below last month’s rate of 4.6 percent. And since May 2017, the rate for the four-county region that includes the Lehigh Valley has dropped by nearly a full percentage point. Steven Zellers, a Labor Department industry and business analyst, said May’s rate marked the Lehigh Valley’s biggest one-month drop in the jobless rate since current record keeping began in 1990. “It’s almost too good to be true,” Zellers said. The region last saw the jobless rate this low in March 2007 before the Great Recession, which the federal government said officially began in December 2007 and ended June 2009. The rate peaked at 9.7 percent in February and March 2010. The Valley’s lowest unemployment rate since current record keeping began is 3.6 percent, from January and February 2001. But some perspective might be in order here: As a region, the Valley’s jobless rate came in 12th lowest among 18 regions in the state, and it came in tied with the Bloomsburg-Berwick region. And the unemployment number is but one barometer of a community’s economic well-being, not taking into account such things as underemployment, in which people do not find work within their real skills and abilities. In addition, the rate is a survey of households, not entirely scientifically researched data. Still, Tony Iannelli, president and CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday’s report shows the economy is “pretty strong and getting stronger.” Iannelli said the tightening labor market is the biggest concern he hears from businesses these days. “It just appears there is a shortage of workers, and meanwhile, companies are poised for growth.” In fact, 89 percent of Lehigh Valley employers surveyed in a recent talent supply study said they planned to hire workers within the next 12 months, said Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. But the study, scheduled to be released July 12, also found most employers are having difficulty hiring or retaining talent. You don’t have to tell R. Chadwick Paul Jr. twice. As president and CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, he heard about it again Tuesday from CEOs involved in early or midstage companies during a meeting with Dennis Davin, secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development. “As you heard from clients, they’re having more challenges getting the highly qualified people they’re looking for to stay here … versus going to work for Google, Microsoft or Apple,” Paul said. But, Cunningham noted, most growing economic regions in the United States also are struggling with a tight labor market, meaning employers have to pony up higher wages and benefits to attract a more limited supply of available workers. Consider, he noted, that a warehouse worker in the Lehigh Valley can easily make at least $15 an hour nowadays. It’s part of the reason 91,230 people from neighboring counties travel to the Lehigh Valley for work every day. “It doesn’t look like the demand is going to end anytime soon, and we also have a significant number of companies that are in the pipeline that are looking at the Lehigh Valley right now, both international and national,” Cunningham said. And there’s still capacity in the market. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the government estimated 17,700 people were out of work out of a labor force of 431,200 in the Lehigh Valley. By seasonally adjusted, the government takes into accounts fluctuations in the workforce due to such factors as holidays. Besides Lehigh and Northampton counties, the government includes Carbon County and Warren County, N.J., in calculating the region’s rate. Total nonfarm employment in the region rose by 200 in May to a record 373,600 jobs, according to government estimates. Year-over-year, jobs rose by 4,200, or about 1.1 percent. Seasonal job increases occurred last month in mining, logging and construction, along with leisure and hospitality, according to the state. Month over month and since last year, the largest increases occurred in wholesale trade, transportation, warehousing and utilities, along with accommodation and food services sectors, according to the state. Each sector set record-high job totals. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate declined two-tenths of a percentage point from April to 4.5 percent, the lowest rate since September 2007, while the U.S. rate declined a tenth of a point to 3.8 percent. While the rate in the Lehigh Valley already is low, opportunities remain. Cunningham pointed to the more than 10,000 students who graduate each year from Lehigh Valley-area colleges. The region could convince more of those graduates to stay, he noted, by showing them the opportunities in the area while they’re still in school, giving them time to align their skills with the openings that await after getting a diploma. That’s just one idea to deal with a tight labor market, a situation that isn’t going away anytime soon. “This challenge of balancing worker supply with employer demand is going to exist for some time to come,” Cunningham said, “absent of technology displacing jobs.” Read the original article here.
How low can it go?
The Lehigh Valley’s unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent in May, a depth not plumbed in more than a decade and a reminder of the region’s tight labor market. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry said Tuesday that the decline was one-half of a percentage point below last month’s rate of 4.6 percent.
And since May 2017, the rate for the four-county region that includes the Lehigh Valley has dropped by nearly a full percentage point. Steven Zellers, a Labor Department industry and business analyst, said May’s rate marked the Lehigh Valley’s biggest one-month drop in the jobless rate since current record keeping began in 1990.
“It’s almost too good to be true,” Zellers said. The region last saw the jobless rate this low in March 2007 before the Great Recession, which the federal government said officially began in December 2007 and ended June 2009. The rate peaked at 9.7 percent in February and March 2010. The Valley’s lowest unemployment rate since current record keeping began is 3.6 percent, from January and February 2001. But some perspective might be in order here: As a region, the Valley’s jobless rate came in 12th lowest among 18 regions in the state, and it came in tied with the Bloomsburg-Berwick region. And the unemployment number is but one barometer of a community’s economic well-being, not taking into account such things as underemployment, in which people do not find work within their real skills and abilities. In addition, the rate is a survey of households, not entirely scientifically researched data.
Still, Tony Iannelli, president and CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday’s report shows the economy is “pretty strong and getting stronger.” Iannelli said the tightening labor market is the biggest concern he hears from businesses these days. “It just appears there is a shortage of workers, and meanwhile, companies are poised for growth.”
In fact, 89 percent of Lehigh Valley employers surveyed in a recent talent supply study said they planned to hire workers within the next 12 months, said Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. But the study, scheduled to be released July 12, also found most employers are having difficulty hiring or retaining talent. You don’t have to tell R. Chadwick Paul Jr. twice. As president and CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, he heard about it again Tuesday from CEOs involved in early or midstage companies during a meeting with Dennis Davin, secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development.
“As you heard from clients, they’re having more challenges getting the highly qualified people they’re looking for to stay here … versus going to work for Google, Microsoft or Apple,” Paul said. But, Cunningham noted, most growing economic regions in the United States also are struggling with a tight labor market, meaning employers have to pony up higher wages and benefits to attract a more limited supply of available workers. Consider, he noted, that a warehouse worker in the Lehigh Valley can easily make at least $15 an hour nowadays. It’s part of the reason 91,230 people from neighboring counties travel to the Lehigh Valley for work every day. “It doesn’t look like the demand is going to end anytime soon, and we also have a significant number of companies that are in the pipeline that are looking at the Lehigh Valley right now, both international and national,” Cunningham said.
And there’s still capacity in the market. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the government estimated 17,700 people were out of work out of a labor force of 431,200 in the Lehigh Valley. By seasonally adjusted, the government takes into accounts fluctuations in the workforce due to such factors as holidays. Besides Lehigh and Northampton counties, the government includes Carbon County and Warren County, N.J., in calculating the region’s rate. Total nonfarm employment in the region rose by 200 in May to a record 373,600 jobs, according to government estimates. Year-over-year, jobs rose by 4,200, or about 1.1 percent.
Seasonal job increases occurred last month in mining, logging and construction, along with leisure and hospitality, according to the state. Month over month and since last year, the largest increases occurred in wholesale trade, transportation, warehousing and utilities, along with accommodation and food services sectors, according to the state.
Each sector set record-high job totals. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate declined two-tenths of a percentage point from April to 4.5 percent, the lowest rate since September 2007, while the U.S. rate declined a tenth of a point to 3.8 percent. While the rate in the Lehigh Valley already is low, opportunities remain. Cunningham pointed to the more than 10,000 students who graduate each year from Lehigh Valley-area colleges.
The region could convince more of those graduates to stay, he noted, by showing them the opportunities in the area while they’re still in school, giving them time to align their skills with the openings that await after getting a diploma. That’s just one idea to deal with a tight labor market, a situation that isn’t going away anytime soon. “This challenge of balancing worker supply with employer demand is going to exist for some time to come,” Cunningham said, “absent of technology displacing jobs.” Read the original article here.