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Service-job sector growing Schools, health care, tourism and white-collar business services provided the lion's share of new jobs in Pennsylvania in 2007 as the manufacturing, retail and construction industries slipped, according to new government figures.

Service-job sector growing

Schools, health care, tourism and white-collar business services provided the lion's share of new jobs in Pennsylvania in 2007 as the manufacturing, retail and construction industries slipped, according to new government figures.

Although the U.S. Labor Department figures are not complete for the year, the number of jobs added in Pennsylvania in 2007 is trailing the number added in each of the three previous years, mirroring a national trend.

Spill fouls the Schuylkill

An oil truck swerved to avoid another vehicle yesterday and fell onto its side, spilling more than 1,200 gallons of home-heating oil in Reading.

Police say the Reddi oil truck, traveling north on Lancaster Avenue, flipped shortly before 1 p.m., tying up traffic and filling storm drains. About 200 gallons drained into the Schuylkill.

Lucky for Tropicana Casino

Lenders have given the former owners of the Tropicana Casino and Resort a year of breathing room before they will demand repayment of debt, the company said in Atlantic City yesterday.

Tropicana Entertainment LLC said its senior lenders agreed to hold off for up to a year before declaring the company in default. Tropicana said such a declaration could have pushed it into bankruptcy. New Jersey casino regulators stripped the Tropicana of its license on Dec. 12, determining that its owners, Columbia Sussex Corp., were incapable of operating the type of "first-class facility" required under state law.

Wage panel: Raise minimum

New Jersey's minimum wage should immediately be increased to $8.25 per hour and then boosted annually to keep pace with inflation, a state commission has recommended. New Jersey's minimum now is $7.15 per hour.

The Minimum Wage Advisory Commission, in its first report since it was created by legislators two years ago, determined that the minimum should be increased to $8.25 an hour, followed by cost-of-living adjustments each year. That would give New Jersey the nation's highest minimum wage, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Factory worker donates $1M

Cumberland County College in Vineland is $1 million richer thanks to a man who never got beyond eighth grade. Paul Navone spent most of his life working in glass factories. But the 78-year-old invested wisely.

Navone's longtime friend and financial adviser, R. Douglas Smithson, serves on the college's foundation. The money will be used to support the school's health-sciences program. The college named its new health-sciences building after the donor.

- Daily News wire services