Jim Narlesky introduced this morning’s speaker Andrew Kleiner from the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. (LVEDC). Andrew is an economic and community development manager for LVEDC. The mission of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation is to market the economic assets of the Lehigh Valley and to create partnerships to lead the recruitment, growth and retention of employers. With this Andrew indicated that with this mission it is hoped that the quality of life for the residents of the Valley will improve. LVEDC focuses on attracting the following sectors of businesses: high-value business services; highly productive manufacturing; research; and, bio and life processing. They look for businesses to provide high paying jobs for those with skills and jobs for those with no or low skills. Many of the warehouses through the valley are providing jobs for the lower skilled workforce. Skills of the workforce are a very important component that brings a business to an area like the Lehigh Valley. Many companies have been concerned about the quality of skills in the Valley. LVEDC formed a committee of the leaders of the nine colleges in the Valley along with CEO’s and other business leaders to come together to provide recommendations to close the skill gap. Colleges have graduates coming out and business needs people with skills coming in.
Andrew indicated that the GDP of the Valley businesses is 40.1 billion dollars. This GDP is larger than that of the state of Vermont and Wyoming. In the top metro areas of the US, the Valley is 5th of those with a population of 200,000 to 1,000,000. The Lehigh Valley’s population is 669,899. From a strategic perspective, we are within one day travel to 33 million people. The five top business sectors by number of employees include Health Care; Manufacturing; Retail; Transportation/Warehousing; and, Food Services. The labor force in the Valley is 345,000 with an average wage of $22.94/hour and a median household income of $62,489. More than 680 manufacturing companies are contributing 7.4 billion dollars to the GDP.
One of the main functions of the LVEDC is to market the Lehigh Valley both nationally and internationally.