July 18th, 2008

A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that Erie County has the sixth-highest percentage of healthcare workers in the country, reports the Erie Times-News, meaning the thriving healthcare industry may soon outpace manufacturing as the county’s main employer.

Writes the Times-News:

“Health-care organizations in the county employ 16.78 percent of all workers, or nearly 22,000 people. Manufacturing, an industry that has driven Erie’s economy for more than 100 years, employs 18.19 percent of county workers, or 23,600 people.

“The [county's three acute care] hospitals earned more than $535 million treating patients in fiscal 2007 — the highest amount each one ever reported.

At a time when so many college-educated young people must leave Erie to find good-paying jobs, the hospitals are bringing them to town.”