Does Erie need more jobs? (Pittsburgh, Altoona: employment, live, manufacturing)

[ghostee]

I lived in Erie county my whole life, and I would like to discuss how we can attract more decent paying jobs to the region. Things have been a bit slow and boring for Erie lately. Also, what type of jobs would you like to see come to the region?

Come on, we need ideas on how we can attract decent jobs here. I'm not good with ideas myself though.

[Craziaskowboi]

Erie does need more jobs. It's the only metropolitan area in Pennsylvania that hasn't recovered from the early-2000s recession, let alone the late-2000s recession. In fact, most Great Lakes metropolitan areas, major or minor, still haven't recovered from the early-2000s recession. Here's the short list of Great Lakes metropolitan areas that have:


- Akron, OH
- Appleton, WI
- Duluth, MN
- Elkhart, IN
- Fond du Lac, WI
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Green Bay, WI
- Kankakee, IL
- Madison, WI
- Muskegon, MI
- Oshkosh, WI
- Sheboygan, WI
- Wausau, WI


Half the Great Lakes metropolitan areas that recovered from the early-2000s recession are in Wisconsin, as are four of the five with new employment peaks in the last 12 months (Appleton, Green Bay, Madison, Oshkosh). Outside of Wisconsin, there are only seven Great Lakes metropolitan areas that recovered from the early-2000s recession, and Grand Rapids, MI is the only one with a new employment peak in the last 12 months. Basically, the Great Lakes won't begin to recover economically until about 2020 at the rate things are going.

[ghostee]

I think Erie is probably the most depressed city/region metro in PA. At this rate, it's totally helpless.

[speagles84]

Originally Posted by ghostee

I think Erie is probably the most depressed city/region metro in PA. At this rate, it's totally helpless.

Johnstown is.

[ghostee]

Guess that's only bias since Erie was the place I knew most growing up.

[speagles84]

Originally Posted by ghostee

Guess that's only bias since Erie was the place I knew most growing up.

Erie certainly isn't booming but Johnstown, Altoona, Hazelton are all much worse off.

[Craziaskowboi]

Yeah, Johnstown is in much worse shape than Erie, and Altoona is arguably so. There's just not enough going on in western Pennsylvania outside of Pittsburgh.

[trackstar13]

Originally Posted by ghostee

I think Erie is probably the most depressed city/region metro in PA. At this rate, it's totally helpless.

Erie is average for many things including recent job growth, unemployment, etc. Erie could use more jobs, but it is far from the most depressed city/region in PA. As a whole Northwestern PA is not doing very well, but most of the available jobs are within the Erie region.

[trackstar13]

One very positive sign for Erie jobs is the recent growth in manufacturing jobs. According to the BLS numbers, Erie has the most manufacturing jobs that it has had in a few years now. Hopefully these jobs are a little higher paying than service industry jobs and there will be continued growth in this sector.

[I_Like_Spam]

A port on the great lakes, Erie would seem to be an ideal location to export compressed natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale