Lehigh Valley manufacturing job growth outpaces U.S. numbers

A new analysis has found that employment in the Lehigh Valley manufacturing sector grew at a faster rate than the nation as a whole over the last five years.

According to the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), employment in Lehigh Valley’s manufacturing sector has grown 11 times faster than in the nation since 2017. The organization said the growth was due to the popularity of the products made in the region, which helped drive the area’s economic recovery during the pandemic.

The Lehigh Valley is home to manufacturers like Mack Trucks, Crayola, Martin Guitar, Lutron Electronics, B. Braun Medical, Ocean Spray, Nestle Purina, Just Born, Freshpet, Bosch Rexroth, OraSure Technologies, and more. The report found that the Lehigh Valley realized an annualized net employment gain of 2.2 percent, or 3,600 manufacturing jobs. In comparison, the U.S. manufacturing sector saw an increase of two-tenths of a percent annually over the last five years, for 12.7 million jobs.

The Lehigh Valley boasts 35,000 manufacturing jobs currently, exceeding the number of jobs in that sector before the pandemic. The LVEDC estimates the sector’s economic output is $7.9 billion annually, placing it among the country’s 50 largest manufacturing markets.

LVEDC President and CEO Don Cunningham said the data clarifies that the Lehigh Valley is still making stuff.

“Manufacturing has a long and rich history in the Lehigh Valley and remains a cornerstone of the evolving economy,” Cunningham said. “The new data speaks volumes about the resilience of our manufacturers and the economic assets that make the Lehigh Valley a manufacturing powerhouse.”

Data used in the analysis measures manufacturing employment growth in Lehigh and Northampton counties from the first quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2022 and is based on a four-quarter moving average to adjust for seasonal variations.