If there is one thing true about living in a Lancaster zip code, it's that you don't have as many neighbors as you would if you lived in an adjacent city. Lancaster is a fairly small town in the United States, with a population just under 60,000. Those figures are telling when it comes to the unemployment rates; a whopping 13% of the city's population is unemployed. Of those who do have work, many commute to nearby Pennsylvania cities where they can put their experience in manufacturing different keel types and other goods to work.

Lancaster used to be a thriving manufacturing town. Like many in the northern United States, however, it has fallen victim to big moves out by companies and the armed forces alike over the last few decades. In the past, the loss of armed forces wasn't such a big deal. Large bases such as the one used in Lancaster for the US Navy up until 1950 could be used by big manufacturing companies. Their open spaces and large land plots were ideal for housing case packing systems and other large pieces of equipment needed by industry to operate.

In fact, that's just what happened in Lancaster, where the RCA company had a thriving manufacturing and research facility up until the 1990s. When the company was purchased by GE, the plant was in turn bought by Burle Industries and the area renamed Burle Industrial Park. The company put the facilities to good use, manufacturing many of their high tech tubes in the area. Unfortunately, this happened in the days before environmental regulations called for innovations such as pipeline strainers, so the entire area became quite polluted.

Burle Industries has since undertaken the burden of cleaning up what is today the known as the Brownfields at the industrial park named after their company. Industrial insulation has been taken down and properly disposed of, the water supply cleaned up, and the grounds themselves decontaminated. Meanwhile, the grounds have continued to function as one of the only major manufacturing centers to be found near the city.

Not that there aren't many opportunities in Lancaster still for the development of manufacturing businesses and their contingent jobs. The industrial park formerly occupied by Armstrong World Industries, which manufactured products such as MRI shields is still usable today, although it too is in need of clean up. However, there are plans to develop both this area and the Northwest Corridor of the city into more modern facilities for both recreational and industrial purposes. The result will likely be an increase in the amount of manufacturing jobs available in Lancaster Pennsylvania.