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 and complete your order. We usually can deliver a Brief within five working days after we have all information necessary to make our estimates.

How Much Does An Economic & Workforce Brief Cost?

Published Economic & Workforce Brief reports posted on this web site currently may be downloaded as Adobe PDF files free of charge. 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. Organizations ordering an Economic & Workforce Brief pay charges for research and reporting.

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 Center for Regional Economic and Workforce Analysis (managed by Rose Baker).

How Is An Economic & Workforce Brief Distributed?

A Brief report is delivered via e-mail as an Adobe PDF directly to the individual in the organization ordering it. A Brief report is embargoed until the the organization ordering it can use the report for planning. After a period specified in a memorandum of agreement with the ordering organization, each Brief is available to the public through this web site.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

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