Pretty good job number for August (Pittsburgh, Economy: hotels, employment, construction)

[BrianTH]

This is not seasonally adjusted so it is a little hard to sort out what it means:

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

But the job count is up 16,900 over last August, which is quite good for a single year--in fact this is the best year over year number since March.

Versus the low in August 2009, this is up 30,800 jobs. Versus the high in August 2008, it is down 5,200 jobs. Those are the best numbers yet since the local recovery began.

In January we were down 14,700 jobs from peak (after a good year over year gain that month). Comparison to peak has been a little up and down since then, but mostly it has improved, and at this average rate we may be back to peak employment by around the end of this year or beginning of next year--which would be way, way ahead of the current projections for a national return to peak employment.

However, we will likely still be facing elevated unemployment at that point, given the local increase in the size of the labor force (which is a story in its own right).

[BrianTH]

Here is sector by sector:

Pittsburgh, PA Economy at a Glance

Looking at the 12-month percentage change, Mining and Logging is the stand-out (no shock there). But Construction contributed nicely, as did Information (which had been negative for a while) and Financial Activities (recently below average).

Professional and Business Services and Health and Education continue to be steady contributors. Manufacturing is still growing but the rate has slowed--that's something to keep an eye on.

Leisure and Hospitality went negative, but that can be very volatile so I'm not concerned yet. Government was the only other negative category, as it has been for a while. Fortunately, Pittsburgh has one of the lowest government job counts among larger metros, so the contraction going on at pretty much all levels of government hurts us less than it does most places.

[pman]

not long ago I read an article on the hospitality industry which claimed that occupancy rates have been flat which means that hotel building has been absorbed (good) but it also means that hotel construction is NOT lagging demand...so there likely isn't a hotel boom around the corner. the rate was 65% I believe, which in itself could be better but at the margin it's good since it didn't decrease with an increase in supply.

[BrianTH]

Calculated Risk tracks hotel occupancy:

Calculated Risk: Hotels: Occupancy Rate increases 6.6% compared to same week in 2010





With occupancy rates just now returning to the pre-recession norms, I agree that means prior hotel building has been absorbed.

I'm not quite sure I agree about the future match between hotel construction and demand--I have no idea what is in the pipeline, but it seems to me that demand has in fact been increasing during the recovery, and so unless new rooms start becoming available, I would guess occupancy rates will start going above normal.

[bradjl2009]

This is good news considering the country as a whole created 0 jobs for the month of August. I do hope however manufacturing hiring begins to pick up a little again, but manufacturing was quick to begin to recover locally and it could be that it's just slowing to a more normal pace also.

[BrianTH]

We may need the national (and international) economy to pick up more to really get a full manufacturing recovery.