When establishing a business location, there are a number of factors to assess.

Does this area have the infrastructure to support the company’s needs? Is there real estate that will accommodate things such as equipment, production and shipping? Is the state and local government supportive of the industry? Will there be easy access to the resources required to make the business function?

One of the biggest resources required is the human factor — the people who will do the jobs that need to be done to create a product or provide a service.

This isn’t just a question of warm bodies. Different businesses require very different skills. A closed coal mine is not a ready source of human capital to invest in running a hospital, for example. It can be, but creating a ready pool of workers can mean promotion of training and other requirements.

On Monday, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Pennsylvania would create the first statewide workforce training program. The announcement followed Pittsburgh’s designation as a workforce development hub by the White House.

The Commonwealth Workforce Transformation Program will use federal funds to invest in the steps that will take Pennsylvania’s greatest asset for business — people — and help them clear the hurdles that can prevent them from getting good, family-sustaining jobs.

Sometimes that is training, specifically training for industries that want to grow in Pennsylvania communities, like an expanding tech presence in the Greater Pittsburgh area or the construction trades that would support infrastructure projects.

Sometimes, it is the aspects of taking a job that might be overlooked as barriers. Maybe you need a uniform, or the right boots. Maybe you need after-school child care. Maybe you can’t afford to get the license you need. (That one should be easily addressed by the state that issues the licenses.)

These are good things to tackle. What is less encouraging is that Shapiro did so via an executive order, rather than it being a wholeheartedly endorsed and supported project with the entire Legislature behind it. Shapiro has signed 15 executive orders in his seven months in office.

Any time you are talking about a governor doing something unilaterally, it makes the situation seem political. That’s even more likely when the governor and lawmakers are locked in a budget battle as Shapiro and the Legislature are — but then, aren’t Pennsylvania governors and legislatures always in a budget battle?

It shouldn’t be political. It should be a given that every elected official from the governor to a local council is in agreement on the idea of putting people to work. We should be able to support the idea of a public good without concern about whether it looks like supporting one party over another.

Every business and every worker is good for the state’s well-being and bottom line. The best way to increase the number of people working and the number of businesses investing in the state is to have the best, most available workforce possible.

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