SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - While listening to an economist talk about unemployment rates Wednesday morning, the chancellor of Penn State Schuylkill said his ears perked up when he heard some insights about the fate of college graduates.
Dr. Kelly Austin was one of the 60 people who attended the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce Annual Economic Forecast held at Penn State Schuylkill Health & Wellness Building at 200 University Drive. The guest speaker was Renee D. Laychur, a chartered financial analyst with FNB Wealth Management, Williamsport.
Looking ahead, Laychur said businesses should pay attention the energy market, since the U.S. is poised to become the world's largest energy producer and shale oil and gas drilling operations are creating more jobs.
"What's something that's going to spur the economy? It's always some kind of big thing. In the '90s it was the Internet. I think one of the big things might be energy in America. If we look at oil prices, we're below $100 a barrel, kind of just in a trading range. But if we look at the price of natural gas, that's a different story. American natural gas prices have plummeted. Why is that? Got a lot of supply here in American and some of it is close to us," Laychur said.
"The U.S. probably became the biggest producer of energy in the world in 2013 while supporting a lot of job growth and economic growth. Drilling in the Marcellus, in the Barnett and in the Dakotas has really increased our national gas reserves and really driven down the price of gas in America. This really positive for manufacturing because it's actually bringing some manufacturing back to the U.S. because energy costs are one of the biggest components of any goods we make," Laychur said.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its data on employment for December 2013, according to its website at www.bls.gov.
"Through most of the recession and post recovery, the Pennsylvania unemployment rate was far less than the unemployment rate nationally. That's just recently turned around. Now it's a little higher than the national average," Laychur said.
In December, the national unemployment rate was 7 percent, according to the official CNN website. In November, Pennsylvania's unemployment rate was 7.3. In Schuylkill County, it's 8 percent, Laychur said.
She admitted, she couldn't predict the future. But Austin was optimistic.
"One of the things that I noted with interest is she pointed out the unemployment rate based on educational level. For those with a bachelor's degree over 25, was less five percent," Austin said.
During a slide show, Laychur reviewed "earnings and unemployment rates by educational attainment," information the Bureau of Labor Statistics collected in 2012 in a survey of people 25 and over.
That year, according to the survey, classes of people with the following degrees had the following unemployment rates: doctoral degrees, 2.5 percent; professional degree, 2.1 percent; master's degree, 3.5 percent; bachelor's degree, 4.5 percent; associate's degree, 6.2 percent; no degree, 7.7 percent; high school diploma, 8.3 percent; less than a high school diploma, 12.4 percent.
"That's a good indicator, compared to the national average of eight percent. It's reaffirming of the work we're trying to do here, providing high quality higher education," Austin said.
Faces in the crowd included William E. Kirwan Jr., Orwigsburg, a certified public accountant and an attorney, he has been the owner of St. Clair & Associates, Pottsville, since 2007.
"I thought it was a very good presentation. It was interesting to see how well our investments have done over the past year and given the economic trends that she pointed out I hope we can expect another good year of returns from our 401Ks and our stock portfolios. I thought it was an optimistic view overall," Kirwan said.
"Some of the message she delivered was that we are in a positive trajectory. It's good for employment. There's a lot of opportunity," Austin said.