Something to consider before you move to Pittsburgh (Philadelphia: credit, job market)

[fragglewaggle]

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sunday, November 04, 2007

Regional Insights: Slow job growth is reducing our labor force

By Harold D. Miller, president of Future Strategies LLC, a Pittsburgh-based management and policy consulting firm.

The unemployment data for September released last month showed that for the eighth month in a row, the unemployment rate in the Pittsburgh Region had decreased from a year ago.

The unemployment rate in the Pittsburgh Region has been decreasing not because people are getting jobs, but because people are leaving the work force, and many of them may be leaving the region altogether.

There are two different reasons the unemployment rate can go down. One is that people who are looking for work find jobs. But the unemployment rate also will go down if people who can't find jobs give up and/or move away, i.e., if they leave the labor force entirely.

What's happening in Pittsburgh? The Pittsburgh Region is one of only three regions in the country where unemployment has decreased primarily because people left the labor force, rather than because of an increase in employment. Comparing the first nine months of 2007 and 2006, the number of unemployed people in the Pittsburgh Region decreased by 8,100, but the number employed increased by only 2,200.

The primary reason for the decline in unemployment was that the number of people in the Pittsburgh labor force decreased by 5,900 (a 0.5 percent decrease).

In fact, the Pittsburgh Region has had the largest percentage reduction in labor force this year of any of the top 40 regions in the country. That's why we've had such a large decrease in the unemployment rate. It's hard to know the reasons, but anecdotal evidence suggests that many are giving up and going elsewhere.

It's not surprising if they're discouraged -- there were only 3,000 more jobs in the Pittsburgh Region in September than a year ago, a growth rate of only a quarter-percent, and we still have 5,000 fewer jobs than we did in 2001.

Job growth in Pittsburgh was less than one-fourth the national rate and was slower than all of the top 40 regions except for Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit and Providence, R.I. And it's getting worse, not better.

What's causing our slow growth? It's not US Airways cutbacks or a few major plant closings. The economic malaise cuts across almost every sector of our economy. The most likely causes are an uncompetitive state business climate and insufficient support for entrepreneurship.

And unless we fix those things, we can expect to lose more of our labor force in the months ahead.

[smokecitytdi]

I think this would answer some of the questions.

Lack of immigrants fuels population decline


The Pittsburgh region has lost more residents since 2000 than any U.S. metropolitan area except New Orleans, but there's no hurricane responsible for it dropping 60,309 people.

Even the illegals won't move to Western Pa.

We can't have a high unemployment rate if everyone moves away.

[Stagger Lee]

most of those where because of deaths. Every city is going into a economic slowdown right now. Not just Pittsburgh.

[guylocke]

most of those where because of deaths. Every city is going into a economic slowdown right now. Not just Pittsburgh.

Well at least about half. If you would take away the death factor, Pittsburgh would have a very unremarkable population decline, very much in line with the rest of the north east.

I wasn't going to even post on this thread, but since we are, I do want to say that although there is some indisputable truth in that news article, the fact that he claims US Air isn't the problem (or even a LARGE problem) completely discredits him. It is just a commentary insight piece, BTW, don't forget.

US Air has shut out THOUSANDS of jobs in Pittsburgh and their scale backs and re-transferring has had a major trickle effect. It really hurt Pittsburgh that we have barely any (maybe no) direct flights to Europe at the moment. That directly affects other business strategies and possibly companies who want to move to Pittsburgh but are afraid to due to their large non-domestic travel.

To say US Air hasn't been one of, if not THE defining factors in the job loss in the Pittsburgh region, is just plain old stupid.

Did you see in the news today how Arlen Specter just TORE into US Air? US Air has had a MAJOR impact on the region, has broken many promises to Pittsburgh, and has essentially dicked us over time and time again. The funniest part? They've moved SO much of their industry to Philadelphia that Philadelphia International is so clogged it's actually become almost a crisis for their city!!!!!!

ROFL

[Stagger Lee]

I read that. THeir CEO is a mod cut

[PPG]

Originally Posted by Stagger Lee

most of those where because of deaths. Every city is going into a economic slowdown right now. Not just Pittsburgh.

But what is the difference? Either way these people are no longer here. Also, with such a high number of deaths, due to old folks, shouldn't we expect to lose even more in the near future?

[guylocke]

But what is the difference? Either way these people are no longer here. Also, with such a high number of deaths, due to old folks, shouldn't we expect to lose even more in the near future?

The point isn't that it becomes a non-issue, because it IS an issue. A big one. The point is that many people think people are leaving Pittsburgh in droves due to a fundamental problem with the region, which is true on certain levels, but not on the grand scale that you made in terms of your New Orleans analogy.

[Stagger Lee]

No, there was a article in the post gazette where the population is about to bottom out soon. It does make sense. When the steel industry crashed a lot of people left also taking their kids. This left a gap with a generation of no middle aged people. However there is a new generation of people coming back again with more kids again. It will most likely slowly come back. The boomers are retiring. With that, younger people replacing them, and with that their children.

[Stagger Lee]

I just don't know about these articles though. You read some where it mentions that job rate is growing, then a month later one about how it is the worst we seen in a while.

[guylocke]

The boomers are retiring. With that, younger people replacing them, and with that their children.

I don't think people WANT to leave Pittsburgh. And I think a lot of people would love to MOVE to Pittsburgh. It's just the sluggish job market that is preventing a lot of that. I am certainly not disputing that we need more jobs, that should be a priority for Mr. Ravenstahl.

However, there is also truth in what you said. A lot of the old folks in Pittsburgh are still working, like MANY old folks are. It's really hard for people to actually retire when social security kicks in nowadays.

When they pass away, they free up more jobs.