In a year-end list of the most influential voices in the world of business, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has put a well-deserved spotlight on KRC Labor Economist Mark Price.

The Post-Gazette recognized Dr. Price as a foremost expert on the Pennsylvania economy in its rundown of the 2011 movers and shakers of the business world.

Read the full story, The most influential people in business of 2011, online. Below is the profile of Mark Price:

MARK PRICE Economist, Keystone Research Center

Just as people head for the nearest doctor when they are sick, so have we as a nation been turning to economists to explain the problems in our economy.

Unemployment in Pennsylvania, like that in most of the rest of the country, stayed high throughout 2011. And the economist on the front line of that was Mark Price of the Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg, whose specialty is labor economics.

"I get more calls when the economy is really bad and there's uncertainty," said Mr. Price, of Carlisle, who earned his doctorate at the University of Utah.

The forecast for 2012 is that the economy will stay fairly bad, with high unemployment, so Mr. Price's phone should still be ringing.

Unemployment rose above 7 percent in February 2009, according to the state's Department of Labor and Industry, and has not dropped below that level since then.

In December 2007, the official start of the Great Recession, unemployment in Pennsylvania was 4.5 percent, which Mr. Price said he would like to see again.

He said that when unemployment stays high, "it carries with it a lot of risks." Young people have to delay starting their careers, older workers empty their retirement savings. People lose their homes.

In order to help people, he said, government should spend money now, possibly raising revenue through taxes on natural gas extraction. After that, he said, the state can cut spending.

-- Ann Belser