Labor Day 2010 comes with little to celebrate

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.

The problem is especially pronounced in Northumberland County, where the 10 percent unemployment rate is higher than the state and national averages.

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 tradition of fairly steady growth and job creation.

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

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.

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.

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 entrepreneurship and high-skill job creation.

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.

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