The 2022 economy was a wild ride in the Lehigh Valley. Still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the region saw economic highs and lows in a year that was anything but typical. 

In his final budget speech before the General Assembly on Tuesday, Gov. Tom Wolf looked back at how the state has recovered from the budget deficit it was in during his first budget address in 2015 and highlighted plans for a $43.7 billion budget that he says can leverage the state’s current surplus. 

It’s a good time to be a worker in the region. Wages are dramatically higher because of growth in the industrial sector and the demand for workers in retail and hospitality industries that had to let many employees go at the height of the pandemic.