The lead article appearing in the 2 February 2008 Centre Daily Times about the closing of Bolton Metal Products in Bellefonte ("Bolton Metal: Most of 94-year-old Bellefonte facility to shut down; Almost 200 jobs lost;" see copy at http://BoltonMetal.notlong.com). To add some information for deliberations about this plant closing, the Penn State Workforce Education and Development Initiative pulled together analysis resources to estimate the economic impacts of nonferrous foundry and forging industry in Centre County. Information in a  proprietary index published by Dunn & Bradstreet indicates that the primary products of the Bolton Metal Products facility are part of the output of the nonferrous foundry and forging industry.

The result of the analysis effort is an Economic and Workforce Brief, “Role of the Nonferrous Foundry and Forging Industry in the Economy of Centre County, Pennsylvania.” This report quantifies the role of every 100 workers employed by the nonferrous foundry and forging industry in generating jobs, compensation, and property taxes in the County.

An analysis behind a Penn State Economic & Workforce Brief targets an industry (a group of establishments providing similar products or services), not an individual firm. As a result, economic and workforce impacts calculated for a Brief represent an industry average, not the impacts generated by an individual firm. Moreover, the Brief does not estimate the net effect of the Bolton plant closing. That is, the Centre County economy might mitigate the impacts of the Bolton plant closing by absorbing workers released from Bolton into jobs at the same or different level of compensation in other firms. In general Pennsylvania is shedding jobs in manufacturing for a variety of complex reasons and is gaining jobs in service industries. Wages offered in service industries often are lower than those paid in manufacturing industries.

For additional information about this Brief or about the work of the Penn State Workforce Education and Development Initiative, contact Rose M. Baker (814.865.9919; rmb194@psu.edu) or David L. Passmore (814.863.2583; dlp@psu.edu). To view other Brief reports produced about other Pennsylvania industries and regions, navigate to:
http://PSUBrief.notlong.com