![\"Augustine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765105686_996_STT-L-INDUSTRIAL-1207.jpg\")
Augustine (SUBMITTED PHOTO)<\/p>\nAs companies continually seek skilled laborers for manufacturing jobs, Scranton ranked among the top 20 metro areas in the United States for industrial employers based on workforce readiness, according to a study conducted by Commercial Search, a modern, online marketplace for commercial real estate.<\/p>\n
Scranton ranked 18th \u2014 just above Detroit and just below Atlanta \u2014 in the study, which considered three main factors: workforce and education\/training, infrastructure and financial considerations.<\/p>\n
Among the key highlights of the study, Scranton ranked fourth for industrial apprenticeship count, with 238 active apprentices per 10,000 residents in selected industrial occupations; and seventh for railway density, with 114 miles of freight rail per 1,000 square miles of land area.<\/p>\n
John Augustine, president and CEO of Penn\u2019s Northeast, a regional economic development agency that serves Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Schuylkill, Wayne and Wyoming counties, believes the dedication of the workers across the area stands out to employers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have a very strong work ethic in Northeastern Pennsylvania,\u201d he said. \u201cThat can actually be measured in terms of reliability, how long people stay at their jobs, and if they can come in on time. The other thing we see because of the increase in industry that we\u2019ve experienced over the past couple years is we have more people that are skilled in similar industries\u00a0 \u2014 we see that in plastics and metal fabrication. If a company said we\u2019re looking at coming here and doing a plastics manufacturing facility, we can say we have 35 companies that employ over 1,000 people in that industry. You have an available, ready and educated workforce to be able to choose from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Augustine (SUBMITTED PHOTO)<\/p>\n
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Augustine added that positive reviews from other firms which relocate to the region also carry weight within the industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best advertisement we can give a company is another company\u2019s testimonial saying why they moved to Scranton and northeastern PA,\u201d he said. \u201cCompanies know they\u2019re getting a better bang for their buck here than in New York or New Jersey. If a big competitor moves to Scranton and says they found a great workforce, they\u2019re close to major markets and we have the space that\u2019s ready, that\u2019s the greatest testimonial we can get. We\u2019ve been fortunate to have developers like Mericle and NorthPoint who build buildings on spec so we have inventory that\u2019s ready to go. You see the headlines a lot of the Amazons, but we still bring in a tremendous amount of manufacturers to the area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Augustine pointed to a project in Pittston Twp. where Todd Arthurs Holdings is constructing an approximately 400,000-square-foot building that is going to be specific for manufacturing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be broken up into three different sections and they\u2019re not targeting warehouse distribution, they\u2019re actually targeting the manufacturing sector,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will help market that building, whether it\u2019s agribusiness, plastics, metals, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n
A diverse mix of higher-education institutions also helps prepare students for an ever-changing workforce, Augustine said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 19 colleges and universities are doing different things, and that\u2019s important,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not all liberal arts schools \u2014 Johnson College is focusing more on automotive or welding. Companies pay attention to it and that\u2019s why we did an education guide a couple years ago, not just to say we have 40,000 students enrolled in our colleges and universities, but to say these are the types of majors that we\u2019re highly skilled and trained in so we can have that workforce ready for you. And, because we have a lot of community and two-year colleges, they can adapt to a company a lot quicker than a four-year institution can in terms of customizing a training program for the company.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, there are about 500,000 workers in Northeast Pennsylvania so, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and the Lehigh Valley, we\u2019re No. 4 in the state in terms of the number of people that companies have to choose from, Augustine said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompanies are pulling out a scorecard and saying, \u2018How many boxes can you check?\u2019\u2009\u201d Augustine said. \u201cWhen we can do a majority of them, it makes their decision to locate here all the more easier. And, when they see other household names, other competitors, or other customers and suppliers moving, it almost does our job for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Augustine stated it\u2019s been a gradual process for Scranton, and Northeast Pennsylvania, to build its strong industrial reputation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis didn\u2019t happen overnight,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something the economic development community has been working on for quite some time by getting our colleges and universities to listen to the needs of the employers, getting our commercial developers to build property and have buildings ready to go, and having that strong workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As companies continually seek skilled laborers for manufacturing jobs, Scranton ranked among the top 20 metro areas in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[60,201,182,803,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-54373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-lackawanna-county","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-luzerne-county","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-scranton","14":"tag-scranton-headlines","15":"tag-scranton-news","16":"tag-top-stories-stt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}