Lancaster: Officials of the PA Department of Labor and Industry and PA Workforce Investment Board toured our sites in Lancaster City where the Construction 201 training class is rehabilitating houses for the City of Lancaster. Dan Kuba, Kelly Whitman, and Veronica Snyder saw the four houses at 414 S. Queen St., 532 Fremont St., 70 S. Marshall St., and 540 Poplar St. that are being made ready for sale with Paul Risk Associates and Wohlsen Contruction providing the general contracting leadership. The local Pennsylvania Conservation Corps crew is also participating in the project.

Mayor Rick Gray and Randy Patterson, Director of Economic Development and Neighborhood Revitalization, from the City of Lancaster along with William Griscom, President of the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, joined the tour and spoke to the unique partnership which has been developed between the Workforce Investment Board, the City, Thaddeus Steven College, and the two general contractors. Mayor Gray said that "this project is fulfilling the vision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by creating jobs and making a contribution to the quality of living in a city like Lancaster".

Millersville: At a ceremony on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, Scott J. Sheely, Executive Director of the Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board, was the Honorary Inductee to the Omicron Delta Epsilon, a national honor society for economic. Dr. Michael Gumpper praised Sheely for his work in the analysis of the contribution of industries to regional economies. Sheely told the group that "policy and planning in the public sector really needs to be driven by data so that our investment of public funds has a rational basis". Nearly a dozen former and current interns of the Workforce Investment Board attended the event and joined Sheely at the podium as he made his remarks.

Mount Joy: Secretary of Labor and Industry Sandi Vito visited the Lancaster County Career and Technology Center on Thursday, April 22 to meet with representatives of local companies who are members of local Industry Partnerships in the metals, food, plastics, health care, printing, and agriculture industries and to talk about pending legislation in the PA Senate in support of keeping the program in the forefront of Pennsylvania's economic development efforts.

Vito praised the work of the Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board in bringing companies together to upgrade the skills of their current workforce. "Technology is changing the face of industry, particularly manufacturing, throughout the Commonwealth. Government needs to support the efforts of businesses to stay competitive in the global marketplace," she commented. Representative Scott Boyd told those present that the PA House of Representatives recently passed the bill unanimously..."something that doesn't always happen"...but an action that is reflective of the bipartisan nature of the bill.

In the course of the visit, the Secretary toured the Mechatronics training facility as well as a new shared kitchen space for food entrepreneurs that is being developed on-site. "The Lancaster County Career and Technology Center is an important part of our innovation system in this region and regularly contributes to the upskilling of the incumbent workforce," commented Scott Sheely, Executive Director of the Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board.

For more information on the pending legislation, contact Troy Thompson, Press Secretary of the PA Department of Labor and Industry at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Washington, DC: More than two years after the Great Recession began, the nation is in the midst of a slow and fragile - but jobless - economic recovery. Some economic indicators seem to suggest that robust economic growth will soon resume, while others point toward a "double-dip" recession and still others indicate little change in the economic situation. Click here to see the March Metro Monitor from the Brookings Institution.

Inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a rapid 5.9 percent annual rate in the last quarter of 2009, the fastest economic growth rate since the third quarter of 2003. But that growth may simply be due to inventory replenishment and, if so, is unlikely to persist. Consumer spending rose in January, but house prices fell. The unemployment rate remained steady at 9.7 percent in February, but long-term unemployment (unemployment of six months or more) hit a record high. The nation lost 36,000 jobs in January, slightly more than it lost in December but many fewer than it lost in previous months. Even if recent modest job losses prefigure a return to new hiring, the kinds of large, sustained job gains that would be needed to bring the unemployment rate down seem unlikely in the near future.

Washington, DC: Two years after the country entered the Great Recession, there are signs the national economy has slowly begun to recover. Thus far recovery has meant the return of economic growth, but not the return of jobs. And just as some communities have felt the downturn more than others, recovery has not and will not be shared equally across the nation's diverse metropolitan economies. Click here to download the The Landscape of Recession: Unemployment and Safety Net Services Across Urban and Suburban America from the Brookings Institution.

Within metropolitan areas, many communities continue to struggle with high unemployment and increasing economic and fiscal challenges, while at the same time poverty and the need for emergency and support services continue to rise. Even under the best case scenario of a sustained and robust recovery, cities and suburbs throughout the nation will be dealing with the social and economic aftermath of such a deep and lengthy recession for some time to come.