Economy
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Further information: Economy of Allentown, Pennsylvania
The now dormant but still standing steel stacks of Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, once the second-largest steel manufacturer in the world. The company ceased most of its operations in 1982, declared bankruptcy in 2001, and was dissolved in 2003.
The Lehigh Valley's tallest building, the 24-story PPL Building in Allentown
Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest on Cedar Crest Boulevard in Allentown, the largest current employer in the Lehigh Valley and third-largest hospital in Pennsylvania with 877 beds and 46 operating rooms
Lehigh Valley Mall in Whitehall Township, the Lehigh Valley's largest indoor shopping mall with 146 stores
The Lehigh Valley's economy has been known historically and globally for its leadership throughout the 19th and 20th centuries in heavy manufacturing. Beginning in the 1980s, however, the region's manufacturing sector declined rapidly as a result of foreign competition, trade practices, operational costs, regulations, and other factors. The most prominent example was the plight of Bethlehem Steel, the world's second-largest manufacturer of steel for much of the 20th century. Headquartered in Bethlehem, Bethlehem Steel abruptly suspended most of its operations in the early 1980s, declared bankruptcy in 2001, and was dissolved in 2003.
Since the late 20th century, the Lehigh Valley has recovered and evolved substantially from the loss of its once powerful manufacturing and steel production base with other industry sectors having emerged in the region, providing a much more diversified regional economy. The region has frequently been cited and heralded nationally as a rust belt success story for this dramatic revitalization. Site Selection magazine has named the Lehigh Valley one of the top 5 best performing mid-sized markets in the country repeatedly since at least 2014 and the top performing mid-sized market in the country as 2023.
As of 2020, the Valley's top five industries were finance, manufacturing, health care and education, professional and business services, and information. Other major industry sectors in the area include transportation, retail trade, and restaurants and hospitality. In 2023, the Lehigh Valley's total gross domestic product was $55.7 billion. The Lehigh Valley boasts a workforce of over 365,900 people residing within the region and over 1.7M people residing within a one-hour commute of the region as of 2023.
Bethlehem Steel[edit]
Main article: Bethlehem Steel
The Lehigh Valley is known historically for its production of steel, Portland cement, silk, and apparel. Bethlehem Steel, founded in 1899 and based in Bethlehem, was a foundation of the Lehigh Valley's economy for nearly a century from 1899 through the early 1980s. At the pinnacle of its success, Bethlehem Steel was the nation's second-largest and one of the world's largest steel manufacturers. Bethlehem Steel was instrumental in the development of many of the nation's most prominent 20th century infrastructure projects. Its steel was used to build 28 Liberty Street, Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Center, and the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City and Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Among major bridges, the company's steel was used to construct the George Washington Bridge and Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge in New York City, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and the Peace Bridge between Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ontario. The Roosevelt administration relied heavily on Bethlehem Steel during World War II, utilizing the company to produce the steel necessary for shipbuilding, ammunition, and other military equipment that proved essential to the Allies' ability to prevail in these conflicts.
In the late 20th century, however, a variety of factors, including the practices of foreign competitors, began eroding Bethlehem Steel's once historical global leadership in steelmaking. In 1982, the company announced it was discontinuing most of its operations. In 2001, the company declared bankruptcy. In 2003, it was dissolved. Throughout the late 20th century, other heavy manufacturing companies in the Lehigh Valley that once served as backbones for the region's economy suffered similarly, either downsizing significantly or dissolving, which destabilized the region considerably.
In the early 2000s, seeking to replace the heavy manufacturing companies that had been the region's foundation for decades, the Lehigh Valley began developing other economic sectors, including financial services, health care, life sciences, and technology. The Lehigh Valley also began emerging as a national warehouse and distribution hub, due in part to its proximity to many of the largest U.S. markets and relatively lower operating costs compared to other Northeast U.S. regions. More recently, a movement to reestablish manufacturing activities in the U.S., driven by customer demand for American-made products, faster product delivery, increased overseas wages, and inflated costs and extended timeframes for shipping has led to some renewed growth in the Valley's manufacturing sector. Several large companies from China and Germany have invested tens of millions of dollars into developing significant operations in the Lehigh Valley, which has generated thousands of new jobs in the region.
Largest employers[edit]
As of 2024, the Lehigh Valley's five top private sector employers are: 1.) Lehigh Valley Health Network (headquartered in Allentown); 2.) St. Luke's Hospital and Health Network (headquartered in Fountain Hill); 3.) Amazon (with a 1,100,000 ft (335,280.0 m) square foot facility in Palmer Township); 4.) Mack Trucks (with manufacturing headquarters in Macungie); and 5.) Air Products (globally headquartered in Trexlertown).
Business and economic environment[edit]
The Lehigh Valley is one of the fastest-growing and largest economies in Pennsylvania and the United States with a total GDP of $55.7 billion (as of 2023) that saw a four percent increase between 2022 and 2023 alone driven by strong manufacturing, financial, health care, and professional services industry segments. It was named in March 2024 as the top mid-sized market in America by Site Selection Magazine for economic development based on the number of projects that met certain criteria for job creation, investment and size in 2023.
It is centrally located in the Northeast megalopolis with ease of access and close proximity to several of the largest U.S. markets, population centers, airports, terminals, railways, and seaports, including the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. The Lehigh Valley is within a one-day drive to over a third of the U.S. population and to over half the population of Canada. The Valley has a lower cost of living, more affordable real estate, lower taxes, and a larger and more affordable labor pool than many other Northeastern U.S. metropolitan regions. These attributes and others, including sizable investments in business development incentive programs and a friendlier regulatory environment, provide the area with a comparatively favorable business climate compared to surrounding metropolitan areas.
Due in large part to this comparably favorable business climate and mature business support programs, the Lehigh Valley has been very successful in luring established businesses as well as new startup companies from higher cost areas such as New York and New Jersey, generating thousands of new jobs and significant new investments in the region. Large companies such as Amazon.com have praised the Lehigh Valley for its commitment to business support, infrastructure investment, and incentive programs, citing these as major reasons for their continuing expansions and increased hiring in the region and Allegiant Air, a low-cost budget airline, opened a new flight base at the Lehigh Valley International Airport in February 2020, noting the area's rapid growth, lower operational business costs, and its proximity to popular destinations as significant reasons for expanding their Lehigh Valley International Airport flights.
Other large national and international companies either based in the Lehigh Valley or with significant operations there include Broadcom Corporation (in Allentown), Avantor Performance Materials (in Allentown), Air Products (in Trexlertown), Crayola (in Easton), Buckeye Partners (in Emmaus), HeidelbergCement (in Fogelsville), Just Born (in Bethlehem, maker of Peeps candies), Mack Trucks (in Allentown), Martin Guitar (in Nazareth), Olympus Corporation (in Center Valley), OraSure Technologies (in Bethlehem), PPL Corporation (in Allentown), Wind Creek Bethlehem (in Bethlehem), Dun & Bradstreet (in Center Valley), Victaulic (in Easton), and others.
In 2014, 2017, 2018, and 2019, the Lehigh Valley was recognized by Site Selection magazine as the second-best performing region of its size for economic development in the nation and the best performing region in the Northeast U.S.. It was ranked by Fortune in 2015 as one of the top 10 best places in the U.S. to locate corporate finance and information technology operations, including call and IT support centers. Allentown, the Lehigh Valley's largest city, was cited as a "national success story" in April 2016 by the Urban Land Institute for its downtown redevelopment and transformation that has led to $1 billion worth of new development projects there between 2015 and 2019, one of only six communities nationally to achieve this distinction.
The Lehigh Valley is one of the leading areas on the East Coast for warehouses and distribution centers. Because of this, it is sometimes referred to as the nation's "second Inland Empire" for freight. Large national companies that own and operate warehouses and distribution centers in the Lehigh Valley include Amazon.com, B. Braun, Boston Beer Company (brewer of Samuel Adams brand beer), BMW, Bridgestone, FedEx SmartPost, FedEx Ground, Home Depot, J. C. Penney, Nestlé Purina, ShopRite, Stitch Fix, The Coca-Cola Company, Ocean Spray, Phillips Pet Food and Supplies, True Value, Uline, Zulily, and others. Most of these warehouses and distribution centers are located along the Valley's southern U.S. Route 22, Interstate 78, and Interstate 476 corridors, which provide direct access to numerous major markets throughout the Northeast U.S. and beyond.
In September 2018, FedEx Ground constructed their largest distribution hub in the country near Lehigh Valley International Airport at a cost of $335 million. This hub can process up to 45,000 packages per hour and employs over 2,000 people. By 2030, it is expected to have a total size of 1,100,000 square feet (100,000 m2) square feet and employ over 3,000 people.
The Boston Beer Company operates its largest U.S. production brewery facility in Breinigsville in the Lehigh Valley, which produces over 2/3rds of all Samuel Adams beer globally. The company continues to upgrade and expand operations at this facility and has cited the location as central to its overall corporate success. Additionally, Ocean Spray, a popular maker of juice drinks and other fruit products, produces 40 percent of its total national beverage volume at its Lehigh Valley plant in Breinigsville. Due to Pennsylvania's lack of an excise tax on cigars and the Lehigh Valley's close proximity to major markets, the region is home to some of the nation's largest cigar distributors and retailers.
Retail shopping[edit]
The largest retail shopping area in the Lehigh Valley is the PA Route 145/MacArthur Road corridor, just north of Allentown in Whitehall Township, which is anchored by Lehigh Valley Mall and Whitehall Plaza.
Other Lehigh Valley malls include Palmer Park Mall in Easton and the South Mall in Salisbury Township. In October 2006, Promenade Saucon Valley, located off Route 309 in Upper Saucon Township in the Lehigh Valley, opened. Promenade is roughly half the size of the Lehigh Valley Mall but features higher end stores not available in Lehigh Valley Mall. In 2011, The Outlets at Wind Creek Bethlehem opened at Wind Creek Bethlehem in Bethlehem, becoming the Lehigh Valley's first outlet mall. The Westgate Mall in Bethlehem has been redeveloped into The Westgate shopping center.vteShopping malls in the Lehigh Valley areaPennsylvania
Lehigh Valley Mall
The Outlets at Wind Creek Bethlehem
Palmer Park Mall
Promenade Saucon Valley
The Shoppes at Trexler
South Mall
The Westgate (Westgate Mall)
Whitehall Plaza (Whitehall Mall)
