The combination of high unemployment and a worker shortage is preventing Pennsylvania from making a full post-pandemic economic recovery. | Pixabay
The combination of high unemployment and a worker shortage is preventing Pennsylvania from making a full post-pandemic economic recovery. | Pixabay
While many states in the country have started to recover economically, that's not necessarily the case for Pennsylvania, and lawmakers are scrambling to figure out how to improve the situation.
According to the national Citizens Business Conditions Index, the second quarter of 2021 saw the index increase from 55.4 to 57.2, a sign that state economies throughout the country are rebounding as businesses reopen and people get back to work.
Head of Global Markets Tony Bedikian said that the economy bouncing back was a combination of many variables, with the desire to return to a semblance of normalcy primary among them.
Gene Barr
| Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry
“What we see at this stage of the recovery is strong momentum -- the payoff of vaccinations, of the ongoing power of fiscal and monetary support, and of the growing readiness to return to normal activities,” Bedikian said, according to the Citizens Business Conditions Index.
Unfortunately, Pennsylvania is lagging behind the rest of the country, as its index actually took a hit over the second quarter when its 59.05 score went down to 50.7, an indicator that the state still has hurdles to overcome to get the economy back on track, according to Pittsburgh Business Times.
In June, the state's unemployment rate was 6.9%, which is higher than the national average and another dynamic of Pennsylvania's poor recovery, according to WFMZ-TV.
Gene Barr, the president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry, wrote a column suggesting that the commonwealth change its interests in favor of what he called "pro-growth policies." Barr also took Gov. Tom Wolf (D) to task for following old-school "tax and spend" policies that he said were hurting the state’s ability to recover economically.
“Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget proposal is a reiteration of the aggressive government spending increases he’s previously proposed — paid for via tax hikes and business mandates that have failed to gain legislative approval in the past,” Barr wrote in an op-ed in Trib Live.
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