Pittsburgh Metro jobs up again in July (Economy: job market, construction)

[BrianTH]

Preliminary year over year gain in July was 17,300, which is +1.5%:

Pittsburgh, PA Economy at a Glance

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

Winners and losers by sector are mostly following the same patterns as recently:

Construction is still disappointing (-4.0%).

But Manufacturing is picking up a bit (+0.9% is pretty good in that sector).

Eds and Meds has slowed (+0.7%), but Finance (+4.3%) and Professional/Business Services (+2.4%) are strong.

Trade/Transportation/Utilities (+2.5%) and Leisure/Hospitality (+3.4%) are also strong.

Government is still a drag (-2.1%).

Final note: the whole state was only up 24,000 jobs yoy. So once again, the Pittsburgh Metro is carrying the state.

[bradjl2009]

I hate how they report the jobs numbers in the paper. Instead of being intelligent and looking at how many jobs there in the current month vs the same month a year ago, they look at how many more or fewer jobs there are this month over last month. There are always some months becuase of seasonal jobs that will always have less jobs than the previous month (as with June and July). For example, there's this article in the paper. State lost 3,100 jobs; 7.9 percent unemployed - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[BrianTH]

Yep, the media really stinks at this. And note that for the most part, I am just reading figures off a single, publicly-available chart, so they don't even really need to do any math.

I have no real explanation for their incompetence, although I do think there is at least a subconscious tendency to avoid presenting anything that looks like great news about the local economy, perhaps out of fear of bucking the conventional wisdom.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Yep, the media really stinks at this. And note that for the most part, I am just reading figures off a single, publicly-available chart, so they don't even really need to do any math.

I have no real explanation for their incompetence, although I do think there is at least a subconscious tendency to avoid presenting anything that looks like great news about the local economy, perhaps out of fear of bucking the conventional wisdom.

I was annoyed enough by it that I posted this comment on the article. I hope some of the people who read the article take a glance at what I wrote.

Pittsbrugh Post Gazette, why are you posting the job numbers in such a strange way? I look at this data and so everyone knows, there's ALWAYS a decline in jobs from June to July. If the PG wanted to report the jobs data accurately as they should, they would show there was an increase of 24,000 jobs from July 2011 to July 2012. Job numbers should be compared by how many there were in the same month last year NOT the month before (in this case June).

Pittsburgh, PA Economy at a Glance

Look at the facts for the Pittsburgh job market in July. Pittsburgh has 1.5% more jobs in July 2012 over July 2011. This is a very strong number and with the number of jobs, it translates to Pittsburgh having 17,300 more jobs in July 2012 over July 2011.

[speagles84]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I have no real explanation for their incompetence, although I do think there is at least a subconscious tendency to avoid presenting anything that looks like great news about the local economy, perhaps out of fear of bucking the conventional wisdom.

Well isn't that the truth? Its never going to change though. People won't read newspapers or watch news that report positive things, it has to be depressing.

One thing that bugs me is, with the exception of people on this forum and some of my friends that live here, everybody thinks most industry and business is leaving Pittsburgh. Where obviously, it is not.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by speagles84

Well isn't that the truth? Its never going to change though. People won't read newspapers or watch news that report positive things, it has to be depressing.

One thing that bugs me is, with the exception of people on this forum and some of my friends that live here, everybody thinks most industry and business is leaving Pittsburgh. Where obviously, it is not.

I don't understand it either. Even going outside daily should be enough of a clue that's not true at all.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by speagles84

One thing that bugs me is, with the exception of people on this forum and some of my friends that live here, everybody thinks most industry and business is leaving Pittsburgh. Where obviously, it is not.

Yep. And if they grant an exception, it is just for Eds and Meds, whereas we have long documented here that it is really quite broad-based growth.

Oh well.

Edit: My favorite, though, is people who still claim the numbers are inflated by government jobs, which could not be more the opposite of the case, particularly around here.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Preliminary year over year gain in July was 17,300, which is +1.5%:

Pittsburgh, PA Economy at a Glance

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

Winners and losers by sector are mostly following the same patterns as recently:

Construction is still disappointing (-4.0%).

But Manufacturing is picking up a bit (+0.9% is pretty good in that sector).

Eds and Meds has slowed (+0.7%), but Finance (+4.3%) and Professional/Business Services (+2.4%) are strong.

Trade/Transportation/Utilities (+2.5%) and Leisure/Hospitality (+3.4%) are also strong.

Government is still a drag (-2.1%).

Final note: the whole state was only up 24,000 jobs yoy. So once again, the Pittsburgh Metro is carrying the state.

1,167,200 is another all-time high for the month... surpassing July 2001 by 13k.


...the momentum builds...

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

1,167,200 is another all-time high for the month... surpassing July 2001 by 13k.

Yep. Although this really doesn't mean anything, I'll be interested to find out if the annual number beats the record set in 2001, which it should handily if we continue to track 15K+ over 2011 (2001 closed weakly as the dot-com recession took hold, and then 9/11 happened, crushing USAir in particular).