Chart source: IHS Global Insight.  December 2010 County Forecasts for Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Greater Philadelphia’s economy is more knowledge-based than ever before.

• Industries such as education and health services, professional and business services, financial activities and information technology require highly educated and skilled workers.
  
• The region’s established manufacturing companies, such as Boeing, DuPont and Rohm & Haas, increasingly require knowledge workers.
  
• In 1990, the manufacturing sector accounted for 13.7 percent of total non-farm employment in the region; by 2009 the sector’s employment share had fallen to 6.9%.
  
• By contrast, in 1990 the private, services-providing sectors had 67.5% of the region’s total employment.
  
• By 2009 these sectors accounted for 75.3 percent of total employment due primarily to the rising importance of the knowledge economy.

Source: Global Insights, Fall 2008 County Forecast. Bureau of the Census, 2008 County Population Estimates. Global Inights, Spring 2009 Forecast.