SUNBURY – Despite the many challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Valley’s workforce development efforts are ongoing…That was one of the observations during the recent virtual State of the Region panel discussion held by the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way.
One of the panelists was Central Pennsylvania Workforce Development Corporation Executive Director Erica Mulberger, who says going all virtual to promote job openings has been the way to go, “We’re doing drive-through job fairs, so it’s kind of adapting services so that people don’t have to come into the businesses to apply for jobs and to give business services and get their names out there.”
Mulberger says in March and April there were over 31,000 initial unemployment compensation claims in nine Central PA counties. Those numbers have now dropped substantially to 5,000 new claims in August – she says at this point last year there were 2,000 claims. Mulberger also says the corporation is also aggressively assisting people dealing with mental health issues, especially pandemic-related cases, as well as those suffering from substance abuse.
Mulberger says the corporation also worked with its manufacturers to provide those in healthcare with anything they needed when the pandemic first hit, “That resulted in a lot of connections for PPE, back in March and April to start things off, and that continued on and there is still communications going back and forth between the local manufactures and the healthcare partnerships that still might be having trouble with PPE.”
The State of the Region event also addressed healthcare, education, legislation and other topics pertaining to responding to the pandemic. You can see the entire ‘State of the Region’ panel discussion at the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way’s Facebook page.
