The Philadelphia Textile Industry

Besides textile industry, industries born after the industrial revolution started from the Great Britain also changed Philadelphia. Paper, leather and textile industries were still very common. Meanwhile, heavy industries such as the coal and iron industry also emerged. The introduction of steam engine and railroad created a larger market coverage for Philadelphia’s manufacturing industries and help businessman sell their goods farther away. After World War II, specially 1970’s, the United States started the process of deindustrialization, so did Philadelphia. The statistics from the Philadelphia Work Inc shows a significant transfer of Philadelphia’s industries (Philadelphia's Economy, n.d.).The statistic compared the number of labor that working for different industries. In 1970, the largest industries in terms of employment are Manufacturing, retail trade, and professional and related services. Manufacturing industry hired 189,156 employees while retail trade industry had 106,269 and professional & related services hired 117,357 employees. …show more content…
Meanwhile, the manufacturing industry only have 42,678. Compared with 1970’s, the workers in manufacturing industry decreases 120,000, and those in retail trade decreases 40,000. The most obvious change occurs in the Educational service and health care industry, which has grown up as the largest industry who hires 184,103 but was not able to be found in the chart back to 1970. As the article says “Today, one in ten works in manufacturing. Philadelphia has become a knowledge-based economy, with three in ten Philadelphians employed in Education, Health, and Social Services.” Also, computer-based business, finance, insurance and printing and publishing industry are active in