Decent November jobs report (Pittsburgh: 2015, activities, best)

[BrianTH]

The jobs that are left are often better than ever. In other words, manufacturing wages are up (in real terms) even though manufacturing employment is down, which is all a consequence of productivity gains.

[BrianTH]

Courtesy of Burgh Diaspora, this is using October's numbers, but it points out there were only five metros which had reached a new high in jobs, four in Texas . . . and Pittsburgh:

Five metros hit highest job levels in a decade - The Business Journals

[gmagoo]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

Heavy metal never went away. <-- click here

No it didn`t. If any of you readers are in the northern Allegheny County area check out the construction site of the ATI rolling mill being built in Brackenridge. Picture PNC park,Heinz field and the Consol all being built simultaneously at the same locale. Steel is here to stay.

[BrianTH]

By the way, government jobs explain a good chunk of the difference between the state/nation and Pittsburgh. All these are year-over-year in November:

Nation:

Nonfarm ex gov.: +1,859,000 Government: -271,000

State:

Nonfarm ex gov.: +71,600 Government: -20,600

Pittsburgh Metro:

Nonfarm ex gov.: +24,500 Government: -1,100

So government job losses cancelled out about 15% of the other job gains nationally and 29% statewide, but only 4.5% locally.

Edit:

Just doing some math:

State ex Pittsburgh

Nonfarm ex gov: +47,100 Government: -19,500

That's over 41% of the non-government job gains in other parts of the state cancelled out by government losses.

[Craziaskowboi]

It just goes to show you that Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania aren't nearly as government-dependent as some of the more cynical economists believe. This is actually a good thing to me, because private-sector jobs are largely wealth-producing while government jobs are entirely wealth-recycling. (Research at public universities is funded mostly by grants, which boosts the wealth production of such jobs and limits the wealth recycling.)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

because private-sector jobs are largely wealth-producing while government jobs are entirely wealth-recycling.

As an aside, I don't think that is true at all. Many government job functions are also performed in the public sector, and it doesn't make sense to say that function is wealth producing only in one of those contexts.

What is true about most government jobs is that there is no attempt to make a profit for the employer, whereas many (but not all) private sector jobs are for for-profit employers. But that just means more of the wealth being produced by government jobs is being given to the consumers of the related goods and services, as opposed to be divided up between those consumers and the employer.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

As an aside, I don't think that is true at all. Many government job functions are also performed in the public sector, and it doesn't make sense to say that function is wealth producing only in one of those contexts.

What is true about most government jobs is that there is no attempt to make a profit for the employer, whereas many (but not all) private sector jobs are for for-profit employers. But that just means more of the wealth being produced by government jobs is being given to the consumers of the related goods and services, as opposed to be divided up between those consumers and the employer.

But even those private companies that have contracts with the government are indirectly receiving recycled wealth in the process. If you work for the government, whether directly or indirectly, then you're being paid with other people's money, so it's a zero-sum game. And I understand that private-sector service jobs are wealth-recycling jobs as well, but the means of new wealth production is a private-sector phenomenon since it involves companies making products that other people want. This is why the United States needs to start exporting more goods because there's a lot of money to be made throughout the world, and the only way to do that is by making products that people around the world want.

[Blackbeauty212]

Pittsburgh's biggest employers looking to fill more than 5,600 positions

Almost all of Pittsburgh’s 50 largest employers are looking to grow, and their combined needs outstrip the past two years. All told, they have 5,619 open positions, up 23 percent from 4,574 a year ago and almost 73 percent from 3,254 in December 2009.

Pittsburgh's biggest employers looking to fill more than 5,600 positions - Pittsburgh Business Times

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

But even those private companies that have contracts with the government are indirectly receiving recycled wealth in the process.

I'm talking about regular private companies.

The security guard just inside the fence is creating wealth, but the police officer just outside the fence is not? That makes no sense. The truth is that they are both helping the company in question to create wealth.

If you work for the government, whether directly or indirectly, then you're being paid with other people's money, so it's a zero-sum game.

That also doesn't make sense. A company's employees are being paid by revenues that ultimately come from its customers, which is also "other people's money". Does that mean it is a "zero-sum game"?

No, of course not. What happens is that the employee's labor helps create some good or service of value that didn't exist before. That's why the sum isn't zero (unless you count the labor utilized as a cost equal in value to the good or service produced--that way lies Marxism, incidentally). That good or service is provided to the customer, the customer provides some money to the employer, and the employee gets compensation from the employer.

Government employees do the same thing: they help create goods or services of value that didn't exist before, and those goods or services are provided to the beneficiaries of the relevant government. Government in turn collect money from their beneficiaries, and provide compensation to their employees.

There are, of course, some typical differences, most notably that there is typically a much tighter relationship between some particular good or service and private revenues, whereas governments often charge little or nothing directly and instead collect revenues through taxation (indeed, one simple notion of what governments should do is those things which it makes sense to finance in that particular way). But none of that goes to the fact that government employees are in fact helping to create goods or services of value that didn't exist before, and getting paid for doing so.

but the means of new wealth production is a private-sector phenomenon since it involves companies making products that other people want.

But of course people also want the goods and services that governments provide.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

Pittsburgh's biggest employers looking to fill more than 5,600 positions

That seems like obviously good news, but I would love to know how those numbers looked earlier than 2009. And of course one thing we don't want is for the labor market to be undersupplied (such that companies have to keep positions open much longer than they would like before finding someone suitable).