What Is An Economic & Workforce Brief?

The Economic and Workforce Development Brief is a quick response, one-page report from Penn State's Workforce Education and Development Initiative about the economic impact of a change in the number of jobs in an industry in a Pennsylvania county or group of counties. Job numbers could change because of a plant opening, due to a plant closing, or as a result of outsourcing, firm expansion, or natural disaster (e.g., a flood, tornado, or fire).

Maybe the job change is in process. Perhaps it might happen in the future. Whatever the timing, Penn State's Economic and Workforce Brief offers a way to capture the "big picture" about how regional employment changes affect total regional jobs, worker compensation, and taxes.

What Information Does A Brief Provide?

Suppose that a plastics manufacturer decides to open a new facility in your county, which will employ 100 new workers. You are curious about what these new jobs will mean for the well-being of county residents. You could order an Economic and Workforce Brief that would describe the impact of these 100 jobs in terms of county-wide jobs created, worker compensation generated, and property tax revenue added. First, the Brief includes information about the direct impact of these 100 jobs. Then, the Brief contains estimates of the job, compensation, and property tax impacts that ripple throughout all industries in the county due to purchases of goods and services from other industries in the supply chain of the plastics manufacturer. Moreover, the 100 workers in the plastics manufacturing facility and in supplying industries spend some of their income in the county. This spending, in turn, creates even more jobs, compensation, and tax revenues throughout the county as workers buy housing, health care, insurance, gas, food, and other consumer items.

The analysis behind a Penn State Economic & Workforce Brief targets an industry (a group of establishments creating similar products or services), not an individual firm. As a result, economic and workforce impacts calculated for a Brief represent an industry average, not the impacts generated by an individual firm.

May I Read An Economic & Workforce Brief?

Since January 2007, the Penn State Workforce Education and Development Initiative has released a Brief as an Adobe PDF file on each of the following topics within major Pennsylvania industries:

A released Economic & Workforce Brief always is posted on this web site and is public information.

How Do I Order An Economic & Workforce Brief?

Anyone may order a Brief. Workforce Investment Boards, local and regional planning agencies, public officials, educators, continuing and extension education specialists, and journalists will find an Economic & Workforce Brief particularly useful to their work. To order a Brief, first, acquire information about the number of jobs increasing or decreasing and the location and industry of the firm or firms changing. Then, complete and submit the form linked to the following button:

Someone from Penn State's Office of Economic and Workforce Development might call you to verify the information you provided. Make sure you have informed someone at the firm or organization at which the job change will occur about your order for a Brief. We might need to discuss our analysis with the contact in the organization. We usually can deliver a Brief within two working days after we have all information necessary to make our estimates.

How Much Does An Economic & Workforce Brief Cost?

An Economic & Workforce Brief currently is created and delivered free of charge, a practice that could change depending on the volume of requests and funding necessary to provide staff and software for the Brief product. Users of a Brief are asked to cite the Penn State Workforce Education and Development Initiative as the source of the Brief and the information it contains.

The Penn State Workforce Education and Development Initiative can contract with organizations and governments for a range of more in-depth economic and workforce analyses. The Penn State Workforce Education and Development Initiative is a partnership between Penn State Outreach and Penn State's College of Education. The mission of the Penn State Initiative is to support the development of the workforce in Pennsylvania through the application of Penn State resources to conduct various types of workforce assessments for employers, industry partnerships, nonprofit organizations, and government entities. A statement of the capabilities of the Initiative is available as an Adobe PDF file.

The College of Education’s Workforce Education and Development academic program within the Department of Learning and Performance Systems provides the academic home for the Penn State Workforce Education and Development Initiative through its Institute for Research in Training and Development (directed by David L. Passmore). The Office of Economic and Workforce Development within Penn State Outreach supplies management for proposals and projects of the Initiatives through its Workforce Assessment Center (managed by Rose Baker). The Initiatives enhances Penn State’s reputation as a key resource for workforce assessments.

How Is An Economic & Workforce Brief Distributed?

A Brief is delivered via e-mail directly to the individual ordering it and, at the same time, is distributed via e-mail to a various Commonwealth policy-makers and to selected education and training providers in the region covered by the Brief. A Brief released by the Workforce Education and Development Initiative also is provided to the Penn State Outreach New Bureau, which often summarizes the Brief in the form of a Tip Sheet (see example as an Adobe PDF file) and distributes the Tip Sheet to media outlets. Information from a Tip Sheet often is carried by Penn State Live (see example). The Outreach News Bureau coordinates media relations and contacts related to each Brief and for the products and programs of the Workforce Education and Development Initiative. Media contact information is provided by the Outreach News Bureau.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

We would like to hear from you about the Economic & Workforce Brief product. Contact us!