Every year the Washington County Chamber of Commerce presents its State of the Economy panel discussion. Leaders in economic development and forecast gather to look back on the previous year and try and take a peek into what may lie ahead. This year Mekael Teshome, Vice President of the Pittsburgh office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (pictured) offered his thoughts on what the nation and the seven county metropolitan Pittsburgh region may expect. Energy is important to Washington County and he says his outlook is not one of a boom because low prices for gas will probably keep energy development weak. Teshome addressed weaknesses in unemployment in the region particularly in manufacturing and transportation but pointed to positive areas of employment growth particularly in professional services and in the automation/robotics industry. He said that those trends reflected nationwide trends. Stefani Pasham, CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development addressed business owner’s issues with brain drain and described her efforts to keep college graduates from leaving the Pittsburgh region. Washington County Commissioners pointed to over $500,000,000 dollars of business development and the creation of nearly one-thousand jobs as pointing the county in the right direction for future years.