A clock just outside the Lancaster Central Market is seen in this photo taken Aug. 6, 2019.
Ian Sterling for WITF
The puzzle of Lancaster County’s economy
The heavily rural county has a lot of manufacturing jobs and a low share of college-educated workers.
By Cardiff Garcia and Stacey Vanek Smith/NPR's Planet Money
Ian Sterling for WITF
A clock just outside the Lancaster Central Market is seen in this photo taken Aug. 6, 2019.
(Lancaster) — The Indicator team from NPR’s Planet Money visited Lancaster County a couple of months ago, because it represents an economic puzzle.
It’s a heavily rural county with a lot of manufacturing jobs and a low share of college-educated workers. These are economic traits that have devastated the economies of other, similar counties, including a lot of other Pennsylvania counties.
And yet, Lancaster County is doing great. Why is that? What makes its economy special? To find out, we took a drive through the county with an economist who lives there — one who happens to specialize in the very trends that have kept its economy resilient.
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