Workforce

When I was governor, I had the privilege of leading trade missions to explore international opportunities for Pennsylvania companies. I came to know many business leaders personally, and I learned that successful American companies all have something in common: a motivated workforce empowered to deliver results. That's why I'm disappointed that some corporate executives have hastily prejudged a proposed federal rule change that would help make the workforce more inclusive. The proposal is particularly meaningful to me because I proudly chair the National Organization on Disability, which promotes the full participation of America's 54 million people with disabilities in all aspects of life - most notably, employment.

One night last week, the parties in the Pennsylvania Convention Center debate invited me to join them in a discussion of remarks I had made earlier in the day at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce about a proposed draft contract. I explained my concerns about the draft, and we had a long, intense conversation about exhibitors' rights, pre-hung drape, procedures for selecting foremen and journeymen, unmet labor calls, shift premiums, and composite jurisdictions. (Don't worry what all that means; you don't need to know.

"Help wanted" signs in the year 2000 will attract a much different workforce than they do today. "We are undergoing the most dynamic changes in our socioeconomic system since the Industrial Revolution," Janice H. McElroy, executive director of the Pennsylvania Commission for Women, told about 60 members of the Main Line Chamber of Commerce at a luncheon Wednesday in Berwyn. In the next 10 years, the workforce will grow older and include more women, immigrants and minorities than ever before, she said.

Potential solutions to problems posed by changes in the nation's workforce are the subject of a conference called "Workforce 2000," scheduled for Friday at the Stouffer Valley Forge Hotel. Now that many "baby boomers" are entering their 30s and 40s, not enough people are entering the workforce, according to Maxine Ballen and Lois Lamdin, co-directors of the Business Development and Training Center, which is sponsoring the conference. The development and training center is in the Great Valley Corporate Center.

The Rethinking Philadelphia special report on connecting young people to jobs ("Philly has work to do," Feb. 27) was a terrific public service on behalf of the thousands of talented and energetic young people in this city who seek employment, but who have far too few opportunities to obtain it. I especially appreciated the focus on programs that are working - activities that link youth with high-quality workplace experiences that can make a...

Employers sliced payrolls by 4,000 in August, the first drop in four years, according to the Labor Department. The decline provided a stark sign that a painful credit crunch that has unnerved Wall Street is putting a strain on the national economy. The snapshot of the jobs climate also showed that the unemployment rate held steady at 4.6 percent, mainly because hundreds of thousands of people left the workforce for any number of reasons. Job losses in construction, manufacturing, transportation and government swamped gains in retail, education and health care, and leisure and hospitality.

Chester County Hospital and Health System in West Chester trimmed its workforce by 45, or 3 percent, last week "in response to downward pressure on health care revenues across the industry," according to a statement. The hospital, with 218 staffed beds, reported a 1 percent increase in revenue, to $114 million from $112.8 million for the six months ended Dec. 31, according to bond disclosure documents. Over the same period, the hospital's operating profit fell 12.6 percent.

IN GOOD TIMES or bad, feast or famine, the Daily News editorial board has one everlasting mantra, "Cut city jobs!" They love to use phrases like "Time of Reckoning for ALL of Us. " They speak as if the city work force hasn't budged an inch since we had a shade under 9,000 police officers and about 700 recreation workers in the late '70s. For a newspaper that has spent the last two months plastering their Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalists all over its pages, they apparently missed the white elephant standing in the newsroom.

The Institute for Scientific Information, a publishing company in West Philadelphia, has laid off about 40 employees, about 7 percent of its 600- member workforce, the company said yesterday. Citing a $2.3 million loss last year and an expected loss in 1988, the company also said it would eliminate 50 positions, many of which it said had been vacant for several months. Earlier this month, ISI informed employees that it planned to divest some of its more recent ventures, including The Scientist, a biweekly science newspaper launched two years ago. "We had a couple of bad years" in terms of profitability, said Bob Steck, vice president of administration.

Faced with a slowdown in orders, Fischer & Porter Co. announced yesterday that it would cut its domestic workforce by about 12 percent, or about 140 people, with most of the reductions to come at the headquarters and manufacturing facility in Warminster, Bucks County. Laurence P. Finnegan Jr., a company spokesman, said the cuts reflected declining orders for the company's industrial control and measurement equipment. Major customers include the pharmaceutical, chemical and petroleum industries.

For the last five months, six middle-age, out-of-work parents have been cramming their brains with information about medical billing, patient privacy, hardware, software, and customer service. If all goes according to plan, they will graduate in May with four industry certifications and a job offer from one of the many Montgomery County companies in need of their newfound skills - NextGen, Teva Pharmaceuticals, SunGard, Unisys, etc. "If I could just get my foot in the door, I feel like I could show off my talents and work my way up," said Stuart Novey, 48, of Ambler.

Triumph Group Inc. of Berwyn has a market value of $3.2 billion and it generated $3.4 billion in revenue in its most recent fiscal year. Its global workforce numbers about 12,000, and it more than doubled in size in the last two years. Why doesn't this aerospace company appear on the Philly 50 list? I've heard that question - or similar ones involving locally based companies such as Airgas, American Water Works, and others - in the five weeks since the debut of the list of 50 public companies with large workforces in the Philadelphia area.

When I was governor, I had the privilege of leading trade missions to explore international opportunities for Pennsylvania companies. I came to know many business leaders personally, and I learned that successful American companies all have something in common: a motivated workforce empowered to deliver results. That's why I'm disappointed that some corporate executives have hastily prejudged a proposed federal rule change that would help make the workforce more inclusive. The proposal is particularly meaningful to me because I proudly chair the National Organization on Disability, which promotes the full participation of America's 54 million people with disabilities in all aspects of life - most notably, employment.

The Community College of Philadelphia's trustees didn't get much done at their meeting Thursday night. Most of the session was spent bringing the seven new board members up to speed. In a sweeping, behind-the-scenes shake-up, Mayor Nutter appointed himself and six key aides to the 15-member CCP board. The move came as a surprise to some of those who lost their seats. Trustee James Roebuck Jr., who was unaffected, said in an interview that he had not received advance notice about the changes.

THE MAYOR'S Reception Room at City Hall filled with cheers Tuesday when Mayor Nutter announced that Phillies co-owner John Middleton and his wife, Leigh, will donate more than $16.2 million over the next four years toward educational, workforce-training and professional-development programming.   The Middleton family picked eight educational efforts to support, providing money to the cash-strapped school district, Philadelphia Academies Inc., Philadelphia Youth Network and Drexel University through the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.

What a great day it was at Dmg Ctrl Ltd., a tech company in Old City. Cofounder Jason Allum pulled the tap on a new mini-kegerator, a little dorm-size fridge perfectly designed to hold one keg of beer that had been installed that afternoon. Mostly foam, sadly. "We have to work on that," Allum said, a frothy plastic cup of Yards IPA in hand to toast a 5 p.m. finish to Monday's workday. Housed on an upper floor of a former factory on North Third Street, Dmg Ctrl Ltd., with its seven employees, is one of 21 tech companies in the neighborhood, enough to constitute a cluster in Old City.

AN EXCITING transformation is taking place at Temple University, as an increasingly residential student population is drawn to Philadelphia's dynamic urban environment. As part of that transformation, Temple has committed to grow and develop within its current footprint, bringing new and improved facilities to its main campus and enhancing economic opportunities in our community. Perhaps the most prominent of our current projects is the student residential complex on Broad Street, one block north of Progress Plaza.

Want some more kindling to toss on the employment fire? I reviewed the latest annual reports for 25 of the biggest Philadelphia-area public companies and found that they actually increased their workforces between 2010 and 2011 by 8 percent. Though that's about 8 percent more than I would have guessed originally, it turns out that those same 25 companies had grown their workforces by 6 percent between 2009 and 2010. As for how this could be, I offer one word: acquisitions.

Chester County Hospital and Health System in West Chester trimmed its workforce by 45, or 3 percent, last week "in response to downward pressure on health care revenues across the industry," according to a statement. The hospital, with 218 staffed beds, reported a 1 percent increase in revenue, to $114 million from $112.8 million for the six months ended Dec. 31, according to bond disclosure documents. Over the same period, the hospital's operating profit fell 12.6 percent.

Bucks County will raise property taxes for the first time in six years and cut its workforce by nearly 9 percent to balance next year's $461.7 million budget. The county commissioners voted, 2-1, Wednesday to adopt the budget and a 1.3-mill tax increase, less than half the 3-mill increase that had been projected last month. The owner of a house with the county's average assessment of $35,900 will pay an additional $45, for a total of $835. To limit the tax increase, the county will reduce its staff of 2,628 workers by about 230 through attrition, a hiring freeze, and possibly an early retirement program, Commissioner Rob Loughery said.