The State of Working Pennsylvania 2004 - The Keystone Research ...

The State of Working Pennsylvania 2004 35
metropolitan area lost 30.4 percent of its manufacturing jobs and the city of Philadelphia lost more
than half of its manufacturing jobs.
Despite these losses manufacturing remains even more important to the state’s smaller metropolitan
areas than it does to the state as a whole (Table 10). In 2003 manufacturing made up a larger
percentage of jobs in nine of the twelve small metropolitan areas than in the state as a whole.
Manufacturing was especially important in York (where it accounted for 23.5 percent of all jobs,
compared with 12.8 percent of all jobs in the entire state), Williamsport (where 23.3 percent of all
jobs were in manufacturing), and Lancaster (20.6 percent in manufacturing).
The Pittsburgh and Philadelphia regions, which have more diversified economic bases than the
state as a whole, were less dependent on manufacturing than was the state as a whole. The same
was true of Harrisburg and State College, each of which depends relatively heavily on a major nonmanufacturing
industry.
State Employment Shifts From Goods To Services
From 1990-2003 Pennsylvania lost jobs in three traditionally high-wage industries. The state lost
35.4 percent of its jobs in natural resources and mining, 27.3 percent of its jobs in utilities, and 24.5
percent of its manufacturing jobs. The state gained jobs in all other industries (Figure 25). The
greatest percentage job gains came in a combination of high- and low-wage industries: education
and health services (32.7 percent increase), professional services (31.2 percent), transportation and
warehousing (28.4 percent), other services (24 percent), leisure and hospitality (22.5 percent), and
information (13.3 percent).
Of the 432,000 jobs that the state gained from 1990-2003, about 241,000 were in education and
health services and about another 142,000 were in professional and business services. This means
that almost nine out of every 10 jobs created in the state between 1990 and 2003 were in these two
industries.