Defending the Pittsburgh area taxpayers and businesses against the burdensome taxation and regulation of Big Government

With the recent announcement from the president and a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania of the plan to invest $90 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) in the state over the next few years, it is useful to look at the recent 34 years of computer- and information-related employment in the Pittsburgh region.  This Policy Brief will review the growth in overall jobs as well as computer and information jobs. Information, in broad terms includes publishing and broadcasting, as well as computer and data processing jobs. This review focuses on employment directly tied to computers, networks and database management.

Much has been written about Pittsburgh’s Downtown office market and its struggles with high vacancy rates.  Firms have downsized their footprints in the wake of the pandemic and the proliferation of the work-from-home culture while some firms have left Downtown altogether.  The result is that the assessed value of office buildings has dropped, in some cases dramatically, and the taxing bodies that rely on them are swimming in the red.

The first quarter results from this year, from real estate research firm Jones Lang LaSalle, do not  show signs of improvement for Pittsburgh’s Downtown office market.