Construction worker welding pipe

CEA’s Pennsylvania Energy and Manufacturing Forum explored the benefits energy development has delivered to Pennsylvanians and workers across the region.

You don’t have to tell the Operating Engineers Local 66 about the benefits of southwestern Pennsylvania’s energy boom. It came at a time when the region’s construction industry was suffering from 9 percent unemployment and perhaps headed for twice as much.

Fast-forward a decade with the Marcellus and Utica shale drilling, pipelines and the building of Shell’s petrochemical plant in Beaver County. Now the operating engineers are not only at full employment, but they’re recruiting engineers from outside of the state to come work here, as well as continuing to ramp up apprenticeship programs.

Read more – Pittsburgh Business Times