Economy

Little Good News for PA Jobs in September and October

Posted by Mark Price on November 22, 2013 6:08 pm
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One of the many lingering side effects of the shutdown of the federal government in October was a delay in the release of Pennsylvania jobs data for September. Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics gives us our first look at the September jobs numbers along with preliminary numbers for October. (The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry has yet to release its own summary.)

The job numbers were all around disappointing.

Six-State Study Finds Industry Supporters Exaggerated Jobs Impact of Shale Drilling

Posted by Chris Lilienthal on November 22, 2013 11:45 am
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Drilling in the six states that span the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations has produced far fewer new jobs than the industry and its supporters claim. In fact, in Pennsylvania, shale-related employment accounted for less than half a percent of total nonfarm employment in 2012 (as the figure to the right shows).

Business Tax Cuts Slow PA Revenue Growth Creating Future Budget Gaps

Posted by Shelley Aragoncillo on November 15, 2013 1:03 pm
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The Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its five-year economic and budget outlook on Thursday, and the picture is not pretty.

Just the Stories ... Debating the Commonwealth Foundation on Minimum Wage

"Just the Facts" is a catchphrase the Keystone Research Center and other progressive economic think tanks use to capture our commitment to grounding advocacy for progressive values and policies in solid data and research.

'One-Size-Fits-All' Business Tax Rankings Don't Have PA's Best Interests in Mind

Posted by Shelley Aragoncillo on October 31, 2013 11:40 am
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We often see in the news state rankings of business climate that vary widely depending on who is doing the ranking. As Billy Hamilton writes in Monday's State Tax Notes (subscription required), these rankings often have much more to do with the low and no tax preferences of the list writers, like the Tax Foundation, than taking a real look at what's happening in the states:

Death of an Adjunct

Appearing last week on a radio program in Pittsburgh with labor historian Charles McCollester, I heard for the first time the story of Margaret Mary Vojtko, a 25-year adjunct faculty member at Duquesne University who died recently in poverty at the age of 83.

More Fun With Shale Jobs Numbers

Posted by Stephen Herzenberg on October 23, 2013 1:26 pm
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Last week, the Marcellus Shale Coalition trumpeted a new claim on the shale drilling industry's positive impact on Pennsylvania jobs:

Raymond James analysts crunched the numbers, and between 2005 and 2012 almost 90 percent of the job growth in Pennsylvania at that time came from oil and gas jobs ... That’s the highest percentage of any state, according to analysts Pavel Molchanov and J. Marshall Adkins, who based the math off data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As meaningless statistics go, this is one of the more meaningless.

When Unions Are Strong, the Economy Is Strong

Posted by Stephen Herzenberg on October 18, 2013 5:26 pm
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I was on WESA's Essential Pittsburgh this week discussing the role of unions in building a stronger U.S. economy.

Funding Uncertainty in Property Tax Plan

Posted by Shelley Aragoncillo on October 18, 2013 10:52 am
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As I blogged yesterday, a new analysis from the Independent Fiscal Office concludes that a proposal to eliminate property taxes in Pennsylvania would leave school districts with $2.6 billion less in overall funding within five years.

Video: Economy Boosting Jobs

Posted by Chris Lilienthal on October 8, 2013 5:32 pm
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This video from our friends at Topos Partnerships explains the economy in terms everyone can understand. Economy-boosting jobs pay people enough to maintain the basic spending levels that keep the economy and our communities going. If people do not earn enough to afford the basics, like food and car repairs, the economy stalls. This video makes a compelling case that lifting low-wage workers helps everyone.

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