SEWN's Job Saving Program Appears in The Philadelphia Inquirer
Bill Wallace's company, William J. Labb Sons Inc., a small manufacturing firm in Philadelphia, survived the recession - but barely. Whether it would make it through the recovery was another question entirely, one extremely important to the 20 people who work at Labb's Bridesburg factory.
"Our industry came back to life," said Wallace - and when it did, he said, he needed help to switch gears from survival to revival before his family-owned company got chewed up in the process.
Labb was nearly out of cash and some key employees had left by October when Wallace, the plant manager and owner's son, called the Strategic Early Warning Network (SEWN). The network, with a statewide $1 million budget, estimates it saved 1,017 jobs at 25 businesses last year at a cost of $976 per job.
"Saving a job is significantly cheaper than creating one," said Greg Olson, SEWN's Manufacturing Director who heads the network's new Southeast Pennsylvania office. The math seems simple. Pennsylvania's weekly unemployment benefit averages $302. So in less than a month, the taxpayer cost to fund a lost job tops what the network might have spent to save it. Olson, however, points out that not every job can be saved. Six months of benefits cost the state $7,852. Read the entire article in the digital edition philly.com.