TalkErie.com - The Joel Natalie Show - Erie Pennsylvania Daily Podcast · Joel Natalie

Erie Manufacturing: John Hilbert, Sr. - Feb. 24, 2026

February 25, 2026·44 min·4 clips

John Hilbert tells Senator McCormick that tariffs are crushing the very industries they were meant to help.

The starting point is small and almost homey. Joel asks what PHB stands for, and Hilbert traces it from Parker Hilbert Benson to the family shorthand now in use. The naming trail does real work here: changed ownership, bought-out partners, and two Hilbert brothers, all after Joel says the show likes origin stories. Then the labor talk takes over. Hilbert says finding people is a huge challenge. COVID, he says, pushed many jobs up by $5 to $8 an hour, at least, and made manufacturing wages more competitive. The government did not raise the minimum wage, in his view; COVID did, and that changed who manufacturing has to compete with. Signing bonuses still catch him off guard. He says he never expected to see them in manufacturing, which hits harder because the conversation keeps one foot in older, leaner job markets. They look back to high unemployment around the early 1980s, when applicants were plentiful and wages sat still for years. Now the door keeps turning. Hilbert says PHB has open positions, but people come in and leave once the daily focus and effort become obvious. That is the blunt stretch. Joel asks why people do not stay, and Hilbert answers in plain terms: work ethic, focus, and daily effort. PHB's work stays concrete too. Hilbert talks through casting, machining, painting, and assembling, turning manufacturing from a slogan into actual steps on a floor. Joel widens the lens near the end, placing manufacturing beside medicine, education, services, and tourism as part of what keeps Erie moving.

As heard by us

A blunt Erie manufacturing conversation about wages, labor, and the pressure on employers.

John Hilbert Sr. offers Joel Natale a practical look at Erie manufacturing, beginning with the family history behind PHB and moving quickly into the harder question of staffing.

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Why you'd press play

You want a plainspoken read on why Erie manufacturing keeps struggling to hire.

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