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| Rose Baker & David
Passmore, Penn State |
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Outline:
Industries in Blair County that are concentrated, growing, competitive, & substantial....their suppliers....buyers of their products & services....their relative impact on the well–being of businesses and households in the County.
First, Baker and Passmore compared the demographic and economic characteristics of Blair County with the entire state of Pennsylvania. The age distribution of the working population of Blair County is similar to Pennsylvania’s. Blair County, however, has a lower percentage than Pennsylvania of people over 25 years old who have some college education and postgraduate education, even though the density of higher education institutions is roughly the same in Blair County as in all of Pennsylvania.
Blair County hourly earnings and per capita income are lower, and the percentage of children living in poverty is greater, than in the Commonwealth in general. Blair County’s population is less likely to be foreign–born, but is more likely to be disabled, than the population in the Commonwealth. Most of the migration in and out of Blair County is to and from surrounding counties.
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Baker and Passmore identified ten industries that:
Are concentrated—Employed a higher proportion of total Blair County workers in 2008 than the proportion of industry employment in the nation;
Are growing—Employed more Blair County workers in 2008 than in 2005;
Grow jobs competitively—Created more Blair County jobs between 2005 and 2008 than can be accounted for by the general rate of job growth in the nation and the industry’s own growth rate in the entire nation; and
Are substantial—Employed more than 200 workers in 2008.
These industries included: paper manufacturing;
warehousing & storage;
food manufacturing;
waste management & remediation services;
miscellaneous manufacturing;
building material & garden supply stores;
general merchandise stores;
social assistance;
miscellaneous store retailers; and
sporting goods, hobby, book, & music stores.
Baker and Passmore listed the major regional suppliers and customers in Blair County which form the business-to-business markets for these ten industries. Then, the ten industries were ranked on the following five factors that impact the well–being of Blair County residents and their community:
National employment growth—Establishments in industries with national employment growth more likely to expand and create new jobs than establishments in flat or declining industries. Indicates robust product market at general level.
Average establishment size—Industries with larger average establishment employment have greater potential for substantial job creation than establishments with lower average employment.
Ratio of average wages in region to nation—Other industry characteristics held constant, higher wage opportunities in an industry induce higher impacts on the regional economy than lower wage industries.
Local tax revenue per worker—The local fiscal impact of an industry is related to (a) the industry’s contribution to revenues through property taxes paid and (b) public expenditures through increased services required by the industry’s employees. This indicator scales the local revenue generated by an industry by the number of workers employed, which demonstrates the per capita worker contribution to the purchase of public goods and services.
Ripple effect on income—Income is created throughout a region when an industry’s employees spend their income in, for instance, retail establishments and restaurants. Some industries produce a larger “ripple effect” on regional compensation of employees and income to proprietors than other industries.
 The resulting rankings:
1 - paper manufacturing
2 - warehousing & storage
3 - food manufacturing
4 - waste management & remediation services
5 - miscellaneous manufacturing
6 - building material & garden supply stores
7 - general merchandise stores
8 - social assistance
9 - miscellaneous store retailers
10 - sporting goods, hobby, book, & music stores
The Baker/Passmore presentation was followed by a presentation from Steve McKnight from Fourth Economy, who speculated about future opportunities for Blair County from the point of view of a site selector. Then, a brief video presentation featured comments from selected Blair County elected officials on the challenges and opportunities facing the County. And, last, Bill Shuster, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Pennsylvania's 9th district, made a keynote address to close the session.
Penn State's Workforce Education and Development Initiative can provide additional information and reports about the economy, workforce, and population of Central Pennsylvania or any region in Pennsylvania. Regions may be counties, groups of counties, or areas defined by ZIP codes. |
Download a copy of the Penn State Workforce Education & Development Initiative report, Blair County's Competitive Economic Advantage, from the Social Science Research Network at:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1677927
This link leads to a downloadable and printable Adobe PDF file. Alternatively, the report may be read online at yudu.com. |
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The preparation and delivery of the report, Blair County's Competitive Economic Advantage, was funded by the Altoona Blair County Development Corporation, the sponsors, with the Allegheny Mountains Convention & Visitors Bureau, of the September 20 Blair County Economic Outlook. |
| The views expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not represent beliefs, conclusions, or positions of Penn State, Altoona Blair County Development Corporation, Allegheny Mountains Convention & Visitors Bureau, or any individuals and organizations consulted during preparation of this report.
This report is issued in the public interest for the benefit of individuals and organizations seeking information about economic development of Blair County. The authors of this report do not represent this information for use in financial planning or investment, nor is any claim made for the usefulness of this information for product design, engineering, or manufacturing. |
Rose M. Baker, Director, Center for Regional Economic and Workforce Analysis, 814.865.9919, rbaker@psu.edu.
David L. Passmore, Director, Institute for Research in Training & Development, 814.863.2583, dlp@psu.edu.
Baker and Passmore are the leaders of Penn State's Workforce Education & Development Initiative, Penn State professors in the Workforce Education and Development academic program, and columnists for Pennsylvania Business Central.
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The Penn State Workforce Education & Development (WED) Initiative is the result of a memorandum of agreement between Penn State's College of Education and Penn State Outreach. The mission of the WED Initiative is to support the development of the workforce in Pennsylvania primarily through the application of Penn State resources to conduct economic and workforce analyses for employers, industry partnerships, nonprofit organizations, and government entities. A two-page description of the WED Initiative is available as an Adobe PDF file.
The WED Initiative conducts research that is policy–relevant, but is not policy–prescriptive. The Initiative often conducts research and analysis about topics and issues that, at times, are the focus of vigorous debate and public attention and that frequently are associated with diverse stakeholders who represent divergent opinions. The Initiative adds value, attention, and discussion to this debate by conducting and reporting research and analysis for decisions affecting economic and workforce development using the most objective and technically appropriate approaches possible. The research and analysis of the Institute are pursued independent of the commercial or political interests of any actual or potential sponsor of the WED Initiative's work.
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Blair County's Competitive Economic Advantage by Rose Baker & David Passmore is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at ssrn.com. |
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