Economy with a broad base

Metro Philadelphia's mix of corporate employers makes for a mellow regional economy, slow-growing but also recession-resistant.

An Inquirer survey of more than 200 major employers shows the region's biggest job engines are the hospital system affiliated with Thomas Jefferson University, and the combination of the University of Pennsylvania and its hospital network.

Other big employers include drugmakers and medical-device manufacturers such as Merck & Co. Inc., GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. and Siemens AG; heavy manufacturers including Lockheed Martin Corp. and Sunoco Inc.; consumer-oriented media companies led by Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc.; specialized financial companies including the Vanguard Group Inc. mutual funds in Malvern and the big credit card lenders in Wilmington; and mass-market retailers, which, in this region, include national giants such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and home-grown companies such as hoagies-and-gasoline purveyor Wawa Inc.

Many of the region's biggest employers are in industries that tend to pay more than the national average, according to Labor Department figures. Merck, DuPont Co., Lockheed, Boeing Co., Sunoco and Exelon Corp. contribute more than their share to the region's payrolls because of the many skilled research and manufacturing positions they provide, according to industry data.

Compared with the rest of the nation, the Philadelphia area, defined for this special report as a 10-county area stretching from New Hope to New Castle, Del., and from Pottstown to Pemberton, has more than its share of jobs in higher education, and medical and health and financial services. It is underrepresented in factory, tourism and government jobs, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

"Philadelphia has a broader service economy. It's world-class in health and education. That provides a very stable economy, because education and health services tend to be not nearly as cyclical as other areas," said Robert Dye, senior economist at Pennsylvania's largest bank, PNC Financial Services Group.

But Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia senior economic analyst Timothy Schiller worries the region relies too much on hospitals and colleges that will not, by themselves, attract more growth to the region.