Economic & Workforce Briefing

Rose M. Baker and David L. Passmore are contributing columnists for Pennsylvania Business Central (PBC) in which they have been writing periodically since June 2008 about economic and workforce issues that affect a 16-county western and central Pennsylvania region. Starting in June 2011, PBC began publishing monthly a companion publication, Marcellus Business Central (MBC), to focus on stories related to Marcellus Shale natural gas opportunities. This Economic & Workforce Briefing blog is an extension of Baker and Passmore's PBC and MBC columns.

Each column that appears in PBC or MBC is posted to this blog in its original form before any edits for length might have occurred to facilitate PBC publication. At times, data tables or charts, which were too lengthy to appear in PBC or MBC, that support or amplify PBC or MBC columns, are posted on this blog.

Baker and Passmore are professors in the Workforce Education and Development academic program in College of Education at Penn State University. However, the opinions in their columns are their own, not those of Penn State or of PBC or MBC.