High school graduation is a time of celebration for families in Mercer County. But unfortunately, the celebration in most homes will be short-lived.

It’s a time when young men and women who are completing at least part of their academic journeys are attending proms, gearing for commencement and planning graduation parties. It’s a busy time and a joyous one as well.

Schools have set special awards ceremonies, where many young people will be receiving honors for everything from sports to academics. Moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas will beam with pride.

But whether these graduates are heading to college or trade school or the workforce, the results are pretty much the same. Many of these young people will be forced to leave the area.

Even young people who aren’t continuing their education, will have a difficult time in this area finding jobs that pay enough for them to survive. And if they hope to make enough money to one day raise families, the job market is much better elsewhere.

This coming Thursday, The Herald and Eastern Software will honor some of the best and the brightest from our Mercer County schools during the Academic All-Star Awards Banquet.

But as we honor these students and revel in their achievements, we also recognize the fact that once they head off to college, their returns to this area will be fewer and shorter as time passes.

And once they graduate from college, except for an occasional Christmas or Thanksgiving family visit, their lives most likely will be built elsewhere.

The brain drain in this area is extensive. There simply aren’t many available jobs for college graduates. And while job creation is one of the promises of all the present presidential candidates, the hopes of any of those jobs coming here are slim.

Unless our municipalities can band together — including consolidation of towns and schools — unless agencies like Penn Northwest Development Corp. can entice more businesses and industries to our area, there’s a bleak future.

The hopes of manufacturing jobs coming here are slim, since warmer climates, non-union areas and even foreign countries are much more attractive to companies who are more concerned about making money than they are about people.

We can only hope that our area’s leaders are able to come up with some solutions to promote this area as a viable host for business and industry. If not, with young people moving away, our graduation classes will continue to shrink and the brain drain will continue.