Leader say Mercer Counties economic growth trending in positive direction

Leaders and business owners came together at the third annual Mercer Economic Summit on Thursday. It's a collaborative effort to check in on the growth the county has seen and discuss what the future holds. Overall, leaders feel things are on the up.

“Our industries are actually in a pretty good place,” Rod Wilt, the Executive Director at Penn-Northwest Development Corporation said. “Our message that this is a great place to live, learn, work and play is resonating.”

Wilt said the manufacturing and transportation industries have seen some of the most recent success.

“Mercer County is a beautiful place. It's a place that's the home of manufacturing and like manufacturers everywhere we’ve got to make sure we have the right skilled workforce in place,” Rick Siger, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development said. 

To get those skilled workers the county is battling a population decline. As their death rate outpaces their birth rate, the focus is on attracting new or bringing people back that have moved away.

The other battle comes with the national economy as things like tariffs hit some industries hard or provide an advantage to others.

“As more companies reshore, that's going to impact places like where we live because we have that manufacturing base and people here know how to make things,” Wilt said. 

As leaders look to the future they expect one of the biggest successes in the next few months  if a deal is finalized with an unnamed business expected to bring more than 1,200 jobs with it.

“If this project is a go, which we should know by the end of the summer, it would be the biggest economic development project in Mercer County since our Grove City outlet mall,” Wilt said.