Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
By Morgan OBrien
For the first time in a generation, our region is home to more jobs
than we have people to fill them. To close this gap, we must become a more welcoming, inclusive and diverse region. We must
provide a heros welcome for returning veterans and help connect
them to opportunity. And we must do much more to educate and
train people who are already here to assure that they may participate in meaningful jobs in our new economy. Within the region,
there are thousands of motivated individuals who are ready to train,
including minorities and people with disabilities.
AlleghenyConference.org
The Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, an Allegheny Conference affiliate, works with partners region-wide to attract and retain investment and reinvent the next
era of business innovation and growth. Investment across five key sectors advanced manufacturing, energy, financial and business services, healthcare
and life sciences, and information and communications technology has led to record-setting employment levels in recent years. The intersection of
these key sectors with innovation and technology is developing the products and processes of the future. Companies are looking to the region with its diversified
economy and sector convergence as a stable place offering leading-edge opportunities. Over the past three years, companies like the ones below have built
facilities or expanded existing ones, created jobs and put the region on the global radar.
One of the worlds leading engineering simulation
software providers, ANSYS, Inc. is occupying a
new 186,000-square-foot, five-story headquarters in
the $52 million Zenith Ridge development at Southpointe II in Cecil Township, Washington County.
The expansion will create 180 jobs. ANSYS speeds
design and development times, reduces costs and
provides insight in product and process development for industries that include aerospace, automotive, high tech, energy and healthcare.
ANSYS, Inc.
Mylan Inc.
Downtown Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries, Inc. a coatings and specialty products Fortune 500 company opened a 120,000-square-foot North American headquarters for its architectural coatings business in Cranberry Township, Butler
County. In an effort to optimize collaboration, PPG is also expanding and co-locating architectural coatings R&D activities at its Harmar Township, Allegheny
County technology center. These projects will result in a total of 309 new jobs
and a capital investment of $14 million.
In 2013, Governor Tom Corbett signed into law Act 89 Pennsylvanias most
comprehensive piece of state transportation legislation in decades. The transportation package is helping to keep Pennsylvania safe and economically competitive
by investing an additional $2.4 billion per year in roads, bridges, highways, transit
systems, ports, bike paths and other areas. With this outcome, the Allegheny Conference achieved one of its top priorities in its 2012-2014 agenda.
The continued phase-out of the Capital Stock & Franchise Tax (CSFT) has been
a top priority of the Allegheny Conference and Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of
Commerce since the Ridge Administration. This tax makes Pennsylvania less
competitive for business investment. Under the original phase-out schedule, the
CSFT should have been eliminated in 2009. Through much hard work from a variety of partners across the state, we will be entering the final year of phasing-out
this tax in January 2015.
In 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a new $14.9 million grant to
expand ShaleNET to five states, with additional hubs in Texas and Ohio. Two
years earlier, the Allegheny Conference facilitated the development of ShaleNET,
a comprehensive recruitment, training, placement and retention program for jobs
in the oil and gas industry. In addition to greatly expanding the reach of Pennsylvanias existing ShaleNET program, the award affirmed the states leadership role
in energy workforce development. To date, ShaleNET has helped to put more
than 3,600 people to work.
AlleghenyConference.org
Just to sustain our economy, we must attract thousands of more individuals each
year even as we work to educate and train those already here.
While we don't have an acute workforce
crisis today, we can see one looming in
the not-too-distant future. We can't afford
to wait years to build up our workforce;
we need to start now. We need to attract
more people with the appropriate skills to
our region. At least as importantly, we
need to do a better job of educating and
training people who are already here, so that more of our fellow residents can participate in the tremendous opportunities
that exist in our region.
David Porges, Chair, Workplace Committee;
Chairman, President and CEO, EQT Corporation
In the years since, the economy has been diversified and the population has
stabilized. More people are working here today than ever before. But the
region has been left older than many competing regions. As of 2013, theres
a 136,834 person gap between the population aged 45-65 and the younger
generation, aged 25-44, that must replace them over the next 20 years.
Our regions population is also less diverse. Between 1970 and 2010, the percentage of foreign-born people in the United States grew from 4.8 percent to
12.7 percent. In the Pittsburgh region, over the same period, foreign born residents as a share of the population dropped from 4.2 percent to 3.2 percent.
87.8%
80.0%
72.4%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
16.3%
12.6%
10.0%
8.4%
10.0%
1.8%
4.9%
2.0%
1.3%
0.0%
White
Black
Pittsburgh MSA
Asian/Pacific
Islander
Other
Hispanic or
Latino
(of any race)
United States
Pittsburgh MSA
800,000
700,000
600,000
500,000
136,834
55 to 65
400,000
300,000
200,000
100,000
45 to 54
25 to 44
Ages 25 - 44
Ages 45 -54
Ages 55 -65
The Allegheny Conference is seeking to meet the workforce needs of job creators with
two new initiatives, one targeting populations on the move, the other focused on
developing a skilled workforce from within.
Its more than a leadership gap because
the skills of younger people in our region
dont match the skills of Baby Boomers
who are retiring. We have to close the
skills gap too.
Julie Caponi, Workplace Committee member;
Assistant Treasurer and Pittsburgh Location
Manager, Alcoa
Rather than seek to communicate with all mobile talent, we have begun to
identify specific skilled populations that are already in motion, including
Puerto Ricans and veterans, as well as underemployed groups within our
region seeking upward mobility. By focusing our communications, we believe we can encourage more of them to consider seeking their next career
move here in our region.
Some 250,000 veterans will be returning to the United States in each of the
next five years. Many of them have skills that are the perfect match for the
growing energy and manufacturing industries.
ServicetoOpportunity.org, a new web-based initiative launched this fall,
helps make the match to employers who are ready to hire.
Building a Globally-Competitive
Workforce (from within)
We have to get more young people interested in these skilled jobs. Our career
education system is broken. If we dont
do a better job of aligning K-12 and
higher education, we wont be able to
develop the skilled workers our region
must have in the future.
David Malone, Chair, Pittsburgh Regional Alliance;
President and CEO, Gateway Financial Group
Some 50,000 Puerto Rican professionals are moving to the U.S. mainland
each year. In partnership with numerous organizations, the Allegheny Conference reenergized Hola Pittsburgh! and ran a focused marketing campaign
in Puerto Rico. The results surpassed expectations. Half of the traffic in July
2014 to ImaginePittsburgh.com came from the island.
In the longer-term, we must encourage our regions young people to acquire the
skills required by our regions growing industries. We must work with educators
throughout the region, K-12 and higher education as well, to help all high
school students make well-informed decisions about post-secondary education
and training, including better aligning career and technical education.
AlleghenyConference.org
By building connectivity among our people, our economy & community and our infrastructure in
innovative ways, we will shape our future together.
Richard Harshman, Chair, Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce;
Chairman, President and CEO, ATI (Allegheny Technologies Incorporated)
People
The People strategy is all about connections about connecting people to skills, connecting job seekers to employers and connecting populations on the move to opportunity in our region. We will also focus on the education
and training of people already here, including career and technical education. (See pages 4 and 5)
Infrastructure
The Infrastructure strategy focuses on improving systems and structures that enhance the
economy, and sustain the population. Initiatives include creating a vision and framework
for a world-class transportation network, including improved transit; developing a sufficient supply of pad ready business sites; addressing the regions stormwater challenges;
focusing attention on the electric grid as the region and the nation transition to a cleaner
energy future; and working to expand domestic and international air service.
Each of these strategies would be ambitious by itself. To make progress across all three through
2017 will require an unprecedented degree of collaboration.
The good news is that the population of our region, including the
minority population, is growing. The gains are small, but they are
significant. More young people are moving here than leaving each
year. And they are better educated than their counterparts across
the country. We must do more to welcome these newcomers and to
encourage them to stay.
AlleghenyConference.org
FirstEnergy Corporation
Forbes Funds
Fox Rothschild LLP
Fragasso Financial Advisors
Gatesman+Dave, Inc.
Gateway Financial Group, Inc.
Gateway Health Plan
Gateway Rehabilitation Center
Geneva College
Giant Eagle, Inc.
Google Pittsburgh
Grant Street Associates, Inc.
Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council
Green Building Alliance
Gunning, Inc.
H. J. Heinz Company
Havas PR
HDR, Inc.
Hefren-Tillotson, Inc.
Henderson Brothers
Heritage Valley Health System
Heyl & Patterson, Inc.
Highmark Health
Highmark Inc.
Hospital Council of Western Pennsylvania
Housetrends Magazine of Pittsburgh
Howard Hanna Real Estate Services
iGate Corporation
Imperial Land Corporation
Indiana Regional Medical Center
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Industrial Scientific Corporation
Infrastructure and Industrial Constructors
USA (i+iconUSA)
International Paper
Iron Mountain
JENDOCO Construction and Real Estate
Jennmar Corporation
Jewish Healthcare Foundation
Jones Day
Jones Lang LaSalle Pittsburgh
Joseph B. Fay Company
Help us build a brighter future together. Contact Kelli Wall at 412-281-4783, ext. 4537
for information about joining the Regional Investors Council.
AlleghenyConference.org