Mack's pullout a blow to Valley's psyche

Symbolic: Big hitters no longer backbone of the local economy.
By Gregory Karp Of The Morning Call
August 17, 2008

Sometimes a company defines a local economy, if not in reality then in perception.For a long time in the Lehigh Valley, it was Bethlehem Steel with its long and storied history.

More recently, it was the flameout of Agere Systems, the former Lucent Technologies and Bell Labs division that briefly put the Lehigh Valley on the high-tech map.

Mack Trucks was among them. Alone, it never defined the Lehigh Valley economy. It never employed as many people in its heyday as the biggest employers. But for most of its 100-plus years in the Valley, Mack Trucks was always part of the definition, a major player listed among the impressive name-brand companies in the region.

Though very different, these three companies share one important trait: each was headquartered here. Another: they no longer are.

Mack Trucks announced Thursday it will move its world headquarters from Allentown to Greensboro, N.C., to join parent company Volvo's base of operations. But it's not all doom and gloom.

As part of the restructuring, Mack also said it will boomerang assembly of its highway trucks -- a product line that left the Lehigh Valley in 1987 -- back to the local Macungie plant. Mack's test center on Lehigh Parkway in Allentown will become a customer demonstration and reception center. A loss of 680 jobs at the headquarters and 300 jobs at the test center is offset by the addition of 200 jobs each at the demonstration center and Macungie factory. That puts the net loss at 580 jobs.

That's a lot of jobs and a lot of lives disrupted. But in context, the fallout isn't nearly as bad.

In the Lehigh Valley, several hundreds jobs one way or the other is a ripple in a sea of 350,000 local jobs, not enough to move the needle on the unemployment rate. It's not like when Agere or Bethlehem Steel shed thousands at a time. Through the years, Mack factories regularly added and subtracted hundreds of workers as its workload ebbed and flowed.

"There is not a huge economic impact one way or the other," said economist Kamran Afshar, who studies the Lehigh Valley economy. "These aren't huge numbers." More here.