Just a few weeks ago, manufacturers in Pennsylvania faced a hiring crisis with seasoned, skilled employees retiring and not enough young people choosing manufacturing careers to replace them. That dynamic has shifted dramatically in just the past few weeks, said Richard Hobbs, executive director of the Manufacturers Resource Center in the Lehigh Valley.

Josh Early Candies, temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, is donating leftover inventory to the doctors, nurses, and volunteers who are helping to fight the coronavirus.

The largest stimulus package in American history was signed into law last week and while it may take time to feel its effects, businesses are beginning to look at what it could mean for their employees and communities.

Several senators led by Sen. David J. Arnold Jr., (R-Lebanon) are seeking relief for construction firms throughout the state who have largely shuttered their companies and most projects after Gov. Wolf’s business closure order on March 19.

Diverse Biotech, Inc. a Bucks County-based pharmaceutical company, has signed a partnership agreement with North Carolina’s Duke University to study potential brain cancer treatments. 

Harvest Health & Recreation, a Tempe, Arizona–based multi-state cannabis operator, said it closed on the acquisition of Franklin Labs LLC, a subsidiary of CannaPharmacy, for about $25.5 million. The acquisition, payable with $15.5 million in cash and a $10 million promissory note, includes a 46,800-square-foot cultivation and manufacturing/processing facility in Reading.

Air Products, the Allentown based industrial gas company, has signed agreements with PBF Energy Inc., a New Jersey-based petroleum company, that include the $530 million purchase of five hydrogen production plants.

Julabo USA, a company in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, is among those businesses that’s staying open because it is helping to equip pharmaceutical companies that are working on vaccines, research, and drug therapies to directly combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you have some brew your willing to spare – particularly if you’re a local brewery – the folks at Christmas City Spirits in Bethlehem are hoping you’ll donated it to them to help with their effort to make hand sanitizer for area health care and emergency services providers.

Bethlehem’s St. Luke’s and Filament Innovations of Coplay, as well as 3D manufacturer ProtoCAM of Upper Macungie Township, have teamed up to produce 3D printed masks and face shields for health care providers to help protect them from COVID-19.