Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Pittsburgh Jobs Struggle to Reach Pre-Recession Levels
July 2006 jobs numbers for the Pittsburgh region are in. Once again, there has been some slight improvement in private payrolls as employment at area establishments posted a meager 7,000 year-over-year gain. Meager in that it represents a well below one percent annual rise—very unsatisfactory and disappointing for a metro area in its third year of recovery from recession.
Again, manufacturing jobs were down in July, registering a loss of 2,900 since July 2005, bringing the total for the last five years to nearly 25,000. Construction jobs are flat for the third straight year while retail employment continues its surprising six-year long downward trend.
And in an increasingly repetitious story, the region’s private establishment job growth over the last 12 months is accounted for almost entirely by two sectors—education and health along with leisure and hospitality. Health and education recorded a July to July gain of 4,700, with the bulk, 3,800, in health care. Similarly, leisure and hospitality posted a 12-month expansion of 4,100 jobs with half of those in eating and drinking places.
It hardly needs saying, but a labor market that depends so heavily on these two sectors must be viewed as anemic. There is no doubt that the growth in health jobs has some benefit for the region to the extent that non-Pittsburghers are coming here and paying for services. But a region as large as the Pittsburgh metro simply must have a broader base of growth if it is to ever provide enough jobs to keep its people here.
By the way, the household survey confirms the establishment survey numbers. Indeed, the picture with that data is even more drab. While July 2006 employment, as measured by the number of people who say they are working, posted a modest 2,100 increase from July 2005, household employment remains below the levels reached 1998 and 1999. Meanwhile, the area’s civilian labor force has not returned to the peak of July 1999. Thus, despite the Labor and Industry Department’s press release touting the fact that unemployment rate has remained below five percent for six of the last eight months, the best one can say for the household employment and civilian labor force data is that they are edging their way to levels achieved seven years ago.
Again, manufacturing jobs were down in July, registering a loss of 2,900 since July 2005, bringing the total for the last five years to nearly 25,000. Construction jobs are flat for the third straight year while retail employment continues its surprising six-year long downward trend.
And in an increasingly repetitious story, the region’s private establishment job growth over the last 12 months is accounted for almost entirely by two sectors—education and health along with leisure and hospitality. Health and education recorded a July to July gain of 4,700, with the bulk, 3,800, in health care. Similarly, leisure and hospitality posted a 12-month expansion of 4,100 jobs with half of those in eating and drinking places.
It hardly needs saying, but a labor market that depends so heavily on these two sectors must be viewed as anemic. There is no doubt that the growth in health jobs has some benefit for the region to the extent that non-Pittsburghers are coming here and paying for services. But a region as large as the Pittsburgh metro simply must have a broader base of growth if it is to ever provide enough jobs to keep its people here.
By the way, the household survey confirms the establishment survey numbers. Indeed, the picture with that data is even more drab. While July 2006 employment, as measured by the number of people who say they are working, posted a modest 2,100 increase from July 2005, household employment remains below the levels reached 1998 and 1999. Meanwhile, the area’s civilian labor force has not returned to the peak of July 1999. Thus, despite the Labor and Industry Department’s press release touting the fact that unemployment rate has remained below five percent for six of the last eight months, the best one can say for the household employment and civilian labor force data is that they are edging their way to levels achieved seven years ago.
