CDC director touts county's growth, prospects
Butler County's economic progress includes a balanced combination of residential and business growth in a county that has some urban settings mixed in with a rural atmosphere.
Residents are proud of the recreational opportunities and pleasant neighborhoods and are still paying lower taxes compared to surrounding counties.
Butler County continues to attract people as a place to work and live, with the population growing steadily at an increase of 4.1 percent from 2004 to 2014.
Both the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area of seven counties surrounding Pittsburgh and the state lost population during this same time, minus 0.1 percent and minus 0.2 percent respectively. Butler County was the only county in Western Pennsylvania whose population increased from 2013 to 2014.
Notwithstanding the livability factors, job opportunities are essential to economic growth in Butler County. Key industries are manufacturing, management of companies and enterprises, health care and social assistance and professional, scientific and technical services.
Key occupations include health care practitioners and technical operations; business and financial operations occupations; production occupations; and computer and mathematical occupations. These occupations represent almost 19,000 workers in the county, with an expectation of 1,350 new jobs created by 2018.
About half of the high-demand occupations require a bachelor's degree. Others may require an associate degree or high school diploma.
The labor demands in the county require applicants to have reading comprehension, critical thinking and speaking.
Butler County is extremely fortunate to have both Butler County Community College and Slippery Rock University offering a wide variety of education to prepare workers for the skills needed in the rapidly changing workplace, especially in manufacturing and professional services industries.
In a recent meeting attended by three Western Pennsylvania community college presidents, BC3 President Nick Neupauer noted, “The pendulum has swung in favor of the community college. It's for those reasons: high-tech jobs, affordability.”
BC3 also offers the students the option to receive bachelor's degrees from numerous other colleges without leaving BC3's campus.
The president of Community College of Beaver County noted it works with students in grades 10 through 12 so students can spend half their time working on their associate degree while training and only spend half of their time in high school.
Butler County will need to continue to find innovative ways to attract and educate a labor force that will be in critical demand soon.The labor force here has more than 22,000 workers aged 55 or older. It is estimated that 8,260 workers may retire by 2018, and only about 4,060 younger workers, those currently 15-19 years old, will be entering the workforce during the same time, creating a gap of more than 4,000 workers to meet the needs of business growth.Although the overall economy continued to grow in 2015, analysts like Stuart Hoffman, PNC chief economist, noted there is still concern regarding growth in 2016 in the heavy industry sector, including manufacturing, transportation and warehousing. Based on conversations with county companies, manufacturing is strong here although there is a mixed response for the outlook in 2016.For example, AK Steel is looking at steady growth at Butler Works because of the concentration on specialty steels, and it is not tied to the gas industry.We are fortunate to have worldwide companies with headquarters in Butler County such as Mine Safety Appliances. They provide products to a worldwide market and are not as affected by local economic impacts.On the other hand, there are manufacturers who are seeing slowdowns and possible job reductions based on high inventories and the effect of the gas industry slowdown.There are a couple main concerns I have with economic development in the county.One is the lack of resources at the state and local level to prepare for and invest in the future. There is less money for economic development, and although I understand the need to tighten budgets, we are still competing with other states and at a local level with other counties at times.Economic development doesn't happen overnight, and most business parks take a long time to fill up. Infrastructure development requires patient capital investment to allow organizations like the CDC to undertake industrial park projects.I see a strong effort in the county to continue building public/private cooperation and to communicate in a meaningful way to plan for the future. As noted previously, we have great education and are attracting people to the county at a much higher rate than other areas of Western Pennsylvania.Finally, the growth occurring in Cranberry Township and the surrounding areas is significant. The township planned for long-term business growth and is taking advantage of the road system there.Butler County overall is now a destination for employees, with slightly more than 40,000 entering per day from outside, about equal to the number leaving the county to work outside.To sum up Butler County's prospects for the next year: it has the lowest taxes in the region and a skilled workforce; companies continue to expand and invest here, including foreign owned; and land is available.Contact the Community Development Corporation of Butler County for specific sites.
