Yep, a great October jobs report for PGH (Pittsburgh, Penn: tax, versus)

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

If you mean in terms of number of people employed, then that is what Briem is pointing out--this October count is higher than any pre-recession October count.

However, unemployment and the unemployment rate will undoubtedly still be elevated, thanks to the large increase in the size of the labor force we have seen (which may be the most underreported economic story about Pittsburgh).

Simply amazing how well we are doing locally. I am too surprised that there hasn't been much reporting on the increase of the labor force and what it actually means for us.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Denver's has been released.

The official release date is December 6:

Schedule of Selected Releases for December 2011

BLS doesn't have Denver's numbers for October as of my writing this:

Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Economy at a Glance

At a guess, you may be looking at a release from the state, which gets the numbers earlier. PA does that too, but hasn't yet for October.

[Blackbeauty212]

Absolutely Fantastic and there's no indication this can't be sustainable.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

Simply amazing how well we are doing locally. I am too surprised that there hasn't been much reporting on the increase of the labor force and what it actually means for us.

I think it so defies conventional wisdom that almost no one dares report on it, for fear of being treated as a loon.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The official release date is December 6:

Schedule of Selected Releases for December 2011

BLS doesn't have Denver's numbers for October as of my writing this:

Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Economy at a Glance

At a guess, you may be looking at a release from the state, which gets the numbers earlier. PA does that too, but hasn't yet for October.

I don't want to hijack, but this is what I have.

Unemployment in the Denver metro area stood at an unadjusted 7.8 percent in October, down a 10th of a percentage point from the September rate, according to raw county jobs data released Tuesday by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

Metro Denver unemployment 7.8%, raw numbers show - Denver Business Journal

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I think it so defies conventional wisdom that almost no one dares report on it, for fear of being treated as a loon.

Interesting, that may be the case. Eventually I think it will become noticeable what has been happening in this area and it may no longer be able to be ignored by the local or national media.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

Absolutely Fantastic and there's no indication this can't be sustainable.

Indeed. We've been heading for this point for a long time (the exact month wasn't a certainty, but this isn't a big surprise).

One of the remarkable things is the diversity--we're getting solid gains in most of our important industry categories (with the notable exception of government, which is really about political issues at higher levels rather than anything specific to the region, and in any event we are fortunate to have relatively little dependence on government employment).

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Katiana

I don't want to hijack, but this is what I have. . . .

There you go--that is a state release. It is the same data as the BLS will eventually report, so there is no reason to question it. But PA has not yet done a similar release.

Edit:

Here is a description of the relevant program, if anyone is interested:

http://www.bls.gov/lau/lauov.htm

In a nutshell, the states are doing the numbers-crunching for the feds, which is why the states can report individually before the feds do the entire release.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Indeed. We've been heading for this point for a long time (the exact month wasn't a certainty, but this isn't a big surprise).

One of the remarkable things is the diversity--we're getting solid gains in most of our important industry categories (with the notable exception of government, which is really about political issues at higher levels rather than anything specific to the region, and in any event we are fortunate to have relatively little dependence on government employment).

What surprises me is how many more jobs there were in Oct 2011 over 2010. The data I saw on the BLS looks like there are over 20,000 more jobs compared to October of last year. It looks like almost every other metro still has a long way to ge before they can even break even with their job numbers before the recession started. You wouldn't think Pittsburgh could be doing this well if you only paid attention to the national news and political discussions.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

Interesting, that may be the case. Eventually I think it will become noticeable what has been happening in this area and it may no longer be able to be ignored by the local or national media.

I think a lot of the national media is already out ahead of a lot of the local media. Of course I agree that eventually the story will be told locally, but eventually can take a long time--and I think in some respects the 2010 Census pushed off that point, even though properly understood it should not have.