who improve worker training, retention and advancement by developing cross-firm skill standards, keer ladders, job redefinitions and shared training and support capacities that facilitate the advancement of workers at all skill levels, including the least skilled. an emerging body of research demonstrates that sector strategies can provide significant positive outcomes for workers including increased wages and greater job security. sector strategies have become an integral way some states respond to local and regional work force needs. as discussed earlier, the ohio skills bank is implementing efforts across a broad range of industries in each of the 12 economic development regions. another example is congressman fattah's state of pennsylvania, which has more than 6,000 firms participating in nearly 80 partnerships and 70,000 workers receiving training services since 2005. to date, at least 39 states have adopted industry or sector strategies, but for the most part, they are doing so in spite of the work force investment act, not because of it. as written the workforce investment act does not