The 2008 Lehigh Valley Workforce Report was presented to the region\'s business community on January 28, 2008 by Kevin Flemming, President of Integrity Personnel, Inc. The 2009 report is available on www.lehighvalleyworkforce.com

1. 2008
This report was
originally presented
Lehigh Valley Workforce Report
to the Lehigh Valley
business community
during the GLVCC
Annual Economic
Outlook on
January 29, 2008.
Introduction
T he statistics that are commonly used to measure the health of a region’s labor
market are important, but limited. Numbers like unemployment, new jobs, and
wage growth are lagging indicators. They tell us what happened yesterday, but
are less effective at predicting the future.
When you run a firm that lives and breathes workforce strategy – you have to
find other means of analyzing the factors that affect the availability & affordability
of labor. These elements include more subtle trends that may not be obvious in
the raw data.
We hire employees for practically every industry in the Lehigh Valley. We review
and interview thousands of candidates per year. Over time, we see patterns in
the way that the labor market behaves and observe the subtle changes in the
demographics of our workforce. When we see evidence of a shift in the market’s
behavior, we go back to the data to see if we can validate our experience.
This report highlights three significant trends in the local workforce
environment that impact business’ ability to hire and retain strong employees.
In ThIs Issue
1 Introduction Lehigh Valley Workforce Trends
2 The Evolution of
a Competitive • Increasing competitiveness with
Workforce &
Wage Gap surrounding metropolitan areas
3 Performance
Expectations • Competition within local talent market is
4 Higher Learning producing a higher quality workforce
Sectors
• Unrealized potential from the region’s
higher education sector
copyright 2008 INTEGRITY Personnel, Inc.
Allentown, PA

2. 2 2008
The evolution of a competitive workforce
W hether they’re aware of it or not, Lehigh Valley businesses are competing for talent with
employers from outside of the Valley. From entry-level workers to experienced professionals, the
ease of travel
from here to
New York City, Competitiveness with surrounding
Philadelphia,
and New Jersey
metropolitan areas
makes our local
workforce highly
mobile. • Mean annual salaries in LV, NYC, &
Additionally, Philadelphia MSA’s
the workforce
itself is • Wage gap has been shrinking over past 10
competing with
a wider pool years
of people than
ever before.
• Effect seen across all labor sectors
So we’ve copyright 2008 INTEGRITY Personnel, Inc.
analyzed how Allentown, PA
this increased
population is affecting the quality of labor.
Finally, this labor market includes a largely untapped resource of high-skill talent among the
current student population. This trend points to our future competitiveness as much as our current
challenges.
Wage gap is shrinking
I t’s common knowledge that a wage gap exists between our market and the surrounding
metropolitan areas. An accountant in the Lehigh Valley makes less that an accountant doing the
same job in Philadelphia or New York.
But we’ve seen a striking shift in this wage differential. We looked at mean annual salaries for
several occupations over the past 10 years, and compared them across three Metropolitan Statistical
Areas: ABE; Philadelphia; and NYC. We’ve observed that the gap between those regions has been
consistently shrinking during this period.
Lehigh Valley vs. NYC
Accountants still earn more in NY than in the Lehigh
• 1998 wage gap Valley – but the spread is significantly less today than
16.95% it was in 1998.
• ACCOUNTANTS
• 2006 wage gap Lehigh Valley vs. NYC
7.75%
• 1998 wage gap
copyright 2008 INTEGRITY Personnel, Inc.
Allentown, PA • EXECUTIVE 30.3%
SECRETARIES
Lehigh Valley vs. NYC
• 2006 wage gap
11.85%
• 1998 wage gap
• WAREHOUSE 8.63% copyright 2008 INTEGRITY Personnel, Inc.
Allentown, PA
LABORERS
We’ve seen the most dramatic movement in the
• 2006 wage gap
1.42% mid-level occupations of administrative and office
professionals.
copyright 2008 INTEGRITY Personnel, Inc.
Allentown, PA

3. 2008
Unskilled occupations have also experienced a decline. These are the least portable jobs in the
market, which explains why the gap is not as wide.
This shift means that there is less financial justification for an individual who lives in the Lehigh Valley
to commute to another city for work. It opens up that segment of the population to local employers.
Employees entering the region are raising
performance expectations
W hile the next trend we’re observing is related to the wage differential, it is a wholly different force
in the labor market. It was revealed when we began to hire more employees whose previous jobs
were outside of the area. These include both people who had been living in the Lehigh Valley while
commuting to other cities, and new arrivals to the region.
These individuals have brought an entirely new level of competition to our candidate pool. Because
they generally have more years of direct experience, and have worked for fast-paced, competitive firms
– these employees have exceeded the expectations of our Lehigh Valley clients.
The effect of this new group of employees on the local labor pool is a general increase in productivity
and overall job performance. One piece of evidence that we obtained was through a comprehensive
survey of our temporary workforce a year and a half ago.
Even we were surprised to find that over 62% of our temporary employees held a Bachelors degree
or higher. These are office professionals who choose to work in temporary or contract positions.
The reasons they choose temporary work over traditional jobs vary. Some state that they want new
experience or new skills, while others prefer having flexibility in their work lives.
In all labor sectors, the influx of new workers from New Jersey, New York and elsewhere is improving
the quality of our local workforce.
Competition within local talent
market
• More candidates entering from other
markets (like NYC Phila.)
• Bringing education, experience
professionalism.
• Raising performance expectations.
copyright 2008 INTEGRITY Personnel, Inc.
Allentown, PA
Unique higher learning sector provides new resources
F or those smaller employers who are concerned that they may be priced out of this new labor market
– there is opportunity to be found through tapping into an underutilized pool of new workers.
The Lehigh Valley is home to 6 independent colleges, 2 state colleges, and 2 community colleges. All
combined, these schools register over 40,000 students per year according to LVEDC.
To date, there has been no real cooperative effort on the part of the Lehigh Valley business
community to leverage the flock of new grads coming out of these schools every year. One reason
has been that new graduates are often overlooked for positions that don’t require a college degree.
A second reason is that many employers overemphasize the need for work experience in their hiring
criteria.

4. 2008
There are two important concepts that small employers should integrate in their hiring strategies.
First, in a competitive labor market, there is no such thing as being overqualified. These younger
workers are
eager to take
jobs that have Unrealized potential from our own
traditionally
been considered institutions of higher education
support or
paraprofessional. • In 2007, region’s colleges produced over 6,000
Second, the new graduates with Bachelor Master degrees.
members of • Current grads are very flexible – willing to take
the Millennial
Generation (or
on entry-level positions in exchange for learning
Generation Y) opportunities.
are the most
flexible and
• There is a disconnect between LV business
fast learners community and LV colleges.
we have ever copyright 2008 INTEGRITY Personnel, Inc.
worked with. If Allentown, PA
employers keep
them challenged and offer them opportunities to contribute to the organization, they will become
productive quickly.
If you think you missed something – don’t worry. You haven’t read about any of these trends yet.
Our firm has been working with this for the past 18 months because it’s our responsibility to be on the
leading edge of any changes to the workforce.
For traditional employers, there are easy-to-implement tactics available that will prepare their
organizations to manage these changes effectively. By focusing on both retention and promotion, a
company can save enormous costs while maintaining a competitive advantage during the toughest
economic cycles.
We believe that these trends will continue for the foreseeable future. The Lehigh Valley workforce
will only become
better skilled and
Action Items for 2008 more expensive
for employers.
By adjusting
their recruitment
• Retention is critical to every employer and retention
• Benchmark your compensation levels to strategies, local
companies can
current wage data leverage the
business benefits
• Focus on developing your existing that result from
a superior labor
employees through training promotion force.
copyright 2008 INTEGRITY Personnel, Inc.
Allentown, PA
About the Author
Kevin F. Flemming is the President of INTEGRITY Personnel, Inc., a business services firm based
in the Lehigh Valley, PA. Integrity delivers recruitment staffing, business administration, and
workforce planning to companies throughout the region. Mr. Flemming joined the firm in 1997
and developed its first integrated service model, blending traditional temporary staffing with
complex project management services.
A Certified Staffing Professional (CSP) and graduate of DeSales University, Kevin has been a
featured speaker on workforce topics for such groups as Lehigh University’s Graduate Studies
program, the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, and the Manufacturers Resource
Center. He has been closely involved with economic development in the Lehigh Valley since 2004, © 2008 INTEGRITY PERSONNEL, INC.
and has published several articles on the region’s economics and workforce. Allentown, PA 610-433-3500