Yet another good unemployment report (Pittsburgh: job market, neighborhoods, to live in)

[BrianTH]

February's unemployment report for the PGH MSA is out, and once again it contains a lot of good news. It is available as a PDF here:

Monthly News Releases

The headline news is that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate continued to fall, this time by 0.2 to 6.7%, once again keeping us significantly lower than the state and the nation as a whole. A story much fewer people are paying attention to, but may mean more for the future of the region, is that the labor force count is also continuing to grow at a rapid rate (so we are adding jobs fast enough to not only keep up with that labor force growth but also to absorb some of the unemployed).

A little bonus analysis: over the year the labor force in the entire MSA grew by 8200. 4800 of that was in Allegheny County (58.5%), and 1300 specifically in the City of Pittsburgh (that is 15.9% of the MSA, 27.1% of the County). All this is by place of residence (not place of employment).

As of the 2010 Census, the County population was 51.9% of the MSA. The City population in turn was 13.0% of the MSA, 25.0% of the County. So what we are seeing in these numbers is increasingly disproportionate labor force growth as you move into Allegheny County, and then further into the City.

Again, there is a hugely important emerging story being told in these numbers, one which has the potential to upend many longstanding patterns and reshape the development of the region (and yet not many people are telling it--maybe because it is just too far outside of conventional wisdom).

And I will end this post with the following link, which I believe is related:

Group seeks to lure newcomers to live in city, not suburbs - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/group-seeks-to-lure-newcomers-to-live-in-city-not-suburbs-629649/?p=0 - broken link)

[Evergrey]

You're right that the labor force growth is a huge story (which will be ignored forever by our media outlets)... and much more important than the famous "Unemployment Rate" number. If Pittsburgh MSA had its usual stagnant labor force... our unemployment rate would be like 5% (a number that would be touted incessantly by media and the Allegheny Conference). By contrast, take a region like Detroit... very high unemployment rate... but it's actually been held in check significantly due to an historic freefall in the metropolitan labor force. Unemployment rate is a rather weak statistic to use as a proxy for regional economic health.

There are very powerful things going on here in Pittsburgh... that have been in the works for a long time... obscured by a legacy of malaise and stagnation... that are compelling people to come to Pittsburgh to find employment. If you go to bls.gov and examine the labor force charts of Pittsburgh versus most other major metros... you will find a diverging trend here. The painful decades-long process of economic and demographic restructuring is finally yielding dividends. Our labor force growth should be a statistic on the tips of tongues of our government officials, regional boosters and economic analysts.

[AaronPGH]

I think the reason why it is ignored is that it's kind of hard to explain quickly. A simple unemployment rate is easy to drop in there and be understood by the general public. Not everyone is a population #s nerd. Sucks...

[BrianTH]

I also think the story is so contrary to current conventional wisdom that public commentators don't want to risk trying to tell it. Then in a couple more years it will become conventional wisdom, and suddenly everyone will act like it was something everyone was talking about all along.

[XRiteMA98]

I agree. I was just testing the job market by placing a resume on-line. I am not actively looking but more like i was curious to see what's out there.

Man, I have't seen such beautiful job scene since the 2000s. But that's IT.

[Craziaskowboi]

Here's the workforce graph, courtesy of Chris Briem:

[BrianTH]

March numbers are now available at the same link above.

Labor force for the entire MSA was up 1.46%. For Allegheny County it was up 1.48%, and for the City of Pittsburgh it was up 1.47%. That's all probably with the MOE, but it still indicates strong interior growth.

[BrianTH]

Chris Briem also updated his analysis:

Nullspace: Peak Labor

[bradjl2009]

It has gone up of course, but the labor force population now doesn't look that much bigger than it was in 2008. I do think it shows our population has gone up but I don't think people are flooding into Pittsburgh and I hope that doesn't really happen.

[Evergrey]

How many other major metros in the US are currently at all-time peak labor, bradjl2009?