GREENCASTLE – While we were all waiting for the President’s State of the Union address, the Franklin County Area Development Corporation (FCADC) offered its State of the Economy assessment at breakfast on March 7, 2024.
312 business and community leaders from across Franklin and many of our neighboring counties joined FACDC for this annual event at Green Brove Gardens in Greencastle, PA, according to David Mackley, FCADC Project Manager.
FCADC President and host Mike Ross refreshed the view that we live in an area with many blessings. We remain within one day’s drive of 50% of the North American population. We have the benefit of living along the I81 corridor. We have considerable population growth, the average age of our population is 41.3 years and there are a lot of highly skilled and dependable workers in that population.
We also have a relatively diversified economy with eight sectors dominating the market. Retail / wholesale / hospitality, education / healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation & warehousing (13%) account for 65%, while and business / professional services, agribusiness, government and construction make up the rest.
Ross observed that though Pennsylvania as a whole is relatively stagnant, we’re a part of a larger regional economy which is experiencing many of the same benefits along with Franklin County.
He listed a variety of positive changes due to FCADC efforts in 2023. Among these were 17 total projects, $650M in capital investments and another $7.3M in economic development incentives which accounted for 7,100 jobs either created or retained in our area.
After reviewing many 2023 projects, he shifted to ongoing projects expected to bear fruit in 2024 including a Keystone Health project at Southgate-Chambersburg, a number of solar projects, Aldi’s Grocery Store in Wayne Heights Mall, and large agricultural investments. There were also nine home development projects.
Ross went on to say we have some challenges to overcome, with the largest all associated with labor and its accompanying needs. Labor is tight all along the I81 corridor with a participation rate of only 61% at the end of 2023. It was 63.47% before the pandemic.
A factor that makes it difficult to attract more labor is the need for early learning and childcare to free up people willing to work while seeing that their children are cared for. Another factor is the need for reliable fixed route public transportation to enable greater numbers of people to move to and from jobs in the cities and towns of the region.
Ross saw signs of hope from Harrisburg with a new governor who was making economic development a priority of his administration.
He summarized by saying we’re fortunate to be growing, that we are projected to continue growing for several decades, and that our economic diversity and growth in all sectors is a great asset. With all that, though, we need to keep working at our labor and infrastructure limitations to truly see the benefits within our grasp.
