Industry News

Almost a decade ago, governors from across the country got together to have a long-overdue discussion about why so many students were graduating from high school ill-prepared for college.

The jobs picture was brighter in Pennsylvania last month, as unemployment statewide plunged to 7.6 percent, 0.3 of a point below March.

May 17, 2013-Harrisburg, Pa. - The state's unemployment rate dropped three-tenths of a percentage point to 7.6 percent in April according to employment statistics released today by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

On the day that the state announced the third-largest decline in unemployment thousands of people tried to pack into an ex-offender job fair.

The Pennsylvania Legislature is expected to take up a bill today to increase funding for the processing of unemployment compensation claims, which the Feds say has been too slow.

Gov. Tom Corbett was right when he said Pennsylvania employers can't find anybody who has passed a drug test, business leaders said Thursday.

Further, the commonwealth has been "trending downward" in its efforts to get payments to state residents on time, the department added in a March 29 letter.

The Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection law sets forth employers' basic obligations with regard to the payment of wages to their employees.

Pennsylvania Kinzua Pathways and the Warren County Chamber of Business and Industry announced this week that both, Clarion University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania , have joined University of Pittsburgh at Bradford in providing students the opportunity to gain field work experience.

A woman lights incense to make a wish to Budha in Hangzhou, one of the stops on the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce & Industry's visit to China in 2012.

Since the Marcellus shale boom began in 2008, there has been much debate and disagreement over the effect natural gas development would have on Pennsylvania's economy.

A troubling state tax revenue report for April is throwing into sharper relief a debate over the best way to create jobs and bring more tax dollars into state coffers.

If the zoning provisions of Act 13 are allowed to stand and drilling is just the beginning, what will follow? Fertilizer plants? Act 13 allows industries to be located in any zoned area of a community.

During a radio talk show appearance Tuesday, the governor rationally explained the commonwealth's low rate of job creation relative to other states, noting that since Pennsylvania had lost fewer jobs than many other states during the recession, it had less ground to recover.

Manufacturers say time and again that before workers can step onto a factory floor, they sabotage themselves by flunking drug tests at alarming rates.

Democrats are pouring on the criticism of Gov. Tom Corbett for his suggestion that Pennsylvania's sluggish job growth stems partly from too many applicants being unable to pass a drug test.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education has released the Report on Referendum Exceptions for School Year 2013-14, which provides detailed information on the number of school districts throughout Pennsylvania that have applied and been approved for exceptions under the Taxpayer Relief Act of 2006.

The unemployment rate for Northumberland County dropped half a percent between February and March, according to the latest figures from the Department of Labor and Industry .

The latest batch of employment statistics brought good news for Erie and Crawford counties as the unemployment rate fell in 65 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties.

"What we're seeing this month in Lebanon and a lot of other areas, the rates are going down but not for the reasons we'd like to see it," said William Sholly, industry and business analyst with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.