Lancaster: With the completion of a moderately successful Summer Youth Employment Program, the limitations on youth eligibility which often hampered enrollment of deserving young people prompted the Lancaster County Youth Council to write to US Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to address the restrictive nature of current eligibility policies. The letter also spoke to a need to revise the outcomes for youth programs as well as changing the rules to assure that adult basic education services are aligned with the needs of skill deficient young people involved in these programs. The letter was hand delivered to Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary and Director of the Employment and Training Administration, as well as sent to Secretary Solis.

Assistant Secretary Oates mentioned changing youth eligibility as one of the first policy changes that she expects the Obama administration to make in a speech to the National Network of Sector Partners last week in Washington. For a downloadable copy of the letter, click here.

Washington: Scott Sheely, the Executive Director of the Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board, co-chaired the bi-annual meeting of the National Network of Sector Partners which was held in Washington, DC from November 10-13. Sheely shared the chair role with Steven Horsford, Executive Director of the Culinary Training Academy in Las Vegas, NV and Speaker of the House of the Nevada legislature. The conference featured addresses by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Assistant Secretary of the Employment and Training Adminstration Jane Oates as well as plenary panels on green strategies, industry and labor partnerships, workforce equity, and sector research. Click here to see the overall program.

Sheely and Horsford led a plenary session entitled "Industry and Labor-Management Partnerships: Investors in Sector Initiatives" which used examples of existing programs to talk about the features of these partnerships. For a downloadable copy of Sheely's comments, click here.

The National Network of Sector Partners (NNSP) is a nation-wide membership organization dedicated to promoting and increasing support for sector initiatives. Sector initiatives are regional, industry-focused approaches to workforce and economic development that improve access to good jobs and/or increase job quality in ways that strengthen an industry's workforce. Its vision is that, as a result of investment in sector initiatives, regional economies will have good jobs and plentiful advancement opportunities, all people will have access to these jobs and opportunities, industry sectors important to those regions will provide them, and all communities will share in the resulting economic vitality.

NNSP's members include sector initiative leaders, policy makers, researchers, business, labor, funders, and supporters. It is guided by a national advisory committee composed of leaders and supporters of sector initiatives. Sheely is a member of the committee.

Washington: On October 6, the Manufacturing Institute releasted the 8th edition of The Facts About Modern Manufacturing which illuminates a critical reality in the future of U.S. manufacturing: while domestic manufacturing continues to be a cornerstone of the U.S. economy, it faces significant challenges that threaten its health as the current economic climate intensifies external costs and competition from abroad. The Facts, produced in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Manufacturers Alliance/ MAPI, provides a glimpse into the strengths of the manufacturing sector as it has kept pace with the overall economy, maintaining a consistent 22 percent market share and increasing its GDP by over 7 times since 1947.

Facts reveals that now, more than ever, the United States must focus on a significant re-investment in the manufacturing industry in order to drive critical innovation, develop the skills of the next generation of workers, and effect policies that sustain a favorable business climate. On the horizon, industrial powerhouses like China, Brazil, India, and the Asian Tigers, and established high-tech industrial leaders in Germany, Japan, and the Nordic countries, threaten to surpass the United States on a competitive world stage. Click here for a downloadable copy.

Dublin: This report presents the results of the Irish strategy for science, technology and innovation to date. It demonstrates how investments to date have translated into job creation across a variety of sectors. It elaborates progress on a strategy to stimulate world-class research and capture and commercialize knowledge flowing from publicly funded research. It also focuses on stimulating interest in careers in science and technology and encouraging research in the public sector. It concludes that it is essential to continue to invest strategically in R&D. Click here for a downloadable copy of the report.

Santa Monica: Leaders in the 2009 Best Performing Cities Index, which ranks U.S. metros based on their ability to create and sustain jobs, are all metros that succeeded in avoiding the worst of economic declines driven by falling housing markets and job losses in manufacturing and global trade. Regional economic factors also strongly influenced the rankings this year, with the oil and gas sector, technology and alternative energy providing stability among metros in Texas, North Carolina, Washington and Louisiana, which also benefited from low dependence on housing/construction. Austin in particular has been helped by its strong tech industry. It is the first metro to ever be ranked number one twice on the index, the last time being in 2000. The Index includes both long-term (five years) and short-term (one year) measurements of employment and salary growth. There are also four measurements of technology output growth, which are included because of technology's crucial role in creating good jobs and driving regional economies. Click here to see more on the Index for 2009.

Lancaster ranked 42 in job growth from 2007-2008 and 42 in relative High Tech job growth from 2007-2008 but lagged in other indicators. Click here to see Lancaster's numbers on the Index for this year.