Refashioning the local economy - and yours

In a previous post, I opined that one big reason why Philly remains the nation's fifth largest city is because this city and region have a diverse and resilient local economy, whereas Phoenix, which everyone from the Census Bureau on down expected to pass us but didn't, relies too much on a single industry and is thus vulnerable to boom and bust cycles or shifts in the industry. This week, I realized that the same could be said of Detroit, a metropolis to which pessimists often compare this one. That city rose on the strength of auto manufacturing, and when its manufacturers shrank in the face of global competition and changing labor markets, so did it. But the same could also have been said about Boston by a visitor there in the 1940s. By then, the textile mills and factories that made New England prosperous had all departed for the South and beyond, but the computer revolution that would remake and revive the region's economy had yet to begin. Likewise, when I arrived here in the early 1980s, this city still had not gotten over the hollowing out of its diverse industrial base. Even though the seeds of its rebound had already been planted many decades earlier, few locals who I knew at the time could have even predicted that some two decades later, we would be talking about the "eds and meds" as a regional economic powerhouse. And yet they are now the main pillar supporting our local economy, but they're not the only one. We also have strengths in professions such as law, the hospitality sector, and service industries, among others. In fact, we even still have manufacturing around here, though some of that has been bought dearly in order to keep assets such as the Naval Shipyard alive. All this reinforces my earlier argument. Because we have historically never relied on a single industry or sector to keep our economy humming, we have been able to find new strengths to build on after the old ones weakened. This sort of renewal process can take place at the individual level too. While many of us have a dominant set of skills, and would do best in jobs that make use of that skill set, most of us either have other skills we can develop or adapt our strong skills to other purposes. Continuing and adult education programs like the ones you can find in PhillyJobs' Education section can get you started down the road to retooling your personal economy to take advantage of changed realities. There's no time like the present to get started. By Sandy Smith Sandy Smith is a veteran freelance writer, editor and public relations professional who lives in Philadelphia. Besides blogging for PhillyJobs.com, he has written for numerous publications and websites, would be happy to do your resume, and is himself actively seeking career opportunities on Beyond.com. Check out his LinkedIn profile and read his other posts on PhillyJobsBlog.com.