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Lehigh Valley Positioned Well for Continued Post-COVID Economic Growth
DON CUNNINGHAM, PRESIDENT & CEO, LVEDC
The economic change wrought by the global COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges and opportunities for economic growth both across the nation and the world, and that is certainly the case in the Lehigh Valley as well.
Change that was taking place was accelerated. The movement away from shopping in stores to ordering online was supercharged as people needed to avoid places crowded with other people.
Office workers began working from home, sometimes in entirely different states than their employers. The availability of workers, particularly those with the right skills, became more challenging. This shifted the supply and demand balance toward employees, driving up wages, benefits, and bonuses among employers caught in an accelerating competition for talent.
Global supply chains became disrupted, ending the reliable shipment of goods across oceans. Just in time inventory is evolving to "just in case" as companies realize they need to stockpile and pre-order goods such as pharmaceuticals, computer chips, and toilet paper to hedge against emergencies. Like all metropolitan areas across the country, the Lehigh Valley will have to grapple with these new economic challenges. But the region is positioned well for continued economic growth in both traditional areas of strength and in new sectors emerging in a post-pandemic economy of rapid change and development.
Toward this end, the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) has recently adopted its new 3-year Strategic Plan. It includes a wide range of goals, priorities, and initiatives, including targeted economic development and growth in key sectors such as life sciences and advanced manufacturing.
LVEDC commissioned the Atlanta-based Garner Economics to assess the Lehigh Valley region for its strengths and weaknesses in critical economic growth factors, as it had done twice before in the last decade. Those assessments found that the Lehigh Valley is in a stronger position for growth than it was a decade ago, and Garner’s recommendations for the Lehigh Valley to continue to thrive are contained in the plan.
