Pittsburgh job market increases in August (Butler, California: lenders, home, price)

[Awesomo.2000]

Originally Posted by dugdogmaster

In my short time on this board I've come to the realization that it's impossible to post good news without people ripping it apart.

There are different ways to look at things. CD seems to have about 60% negative people, 40% positive.

The Pittsburgh economy has been favoring well in comparison to the rest of the nation.

Again, it doesn't matter. We will always have a few people, or perhaps one person, come start a fire and ignite the flames.

[Humanoid]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Wow, that's amazing. One tends to think of health care as "recession proof".

Patient care and things of those nature are fairly recession proof, but UPMC does much more than that. They are likely being effected by the tightening of the credit markets, it will make expansion and funding/re-funding programs more difficult.

And, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Pittsburgh's unemployment rate is 5.3 percent, which is hardly cause for celebration.

Its 7.9% over here in Los Angeles. This is largely due to financial and real estate related job loses though. The boom times passed Pittsburgh, but as a result Pittsburgh doesn't get hit as hard by down turns associated with the collapse of such booms. Of course, it looks like the disease started in CA, NY etc is spreading across the country so Pittsburgh's unemployment figures may catch-up.

But Pittsburgh's economy is hardly doing "well", it hasn't been for many years.

[globalburgh]

Anything in the housing sector of the economy (construction, real estate, etc ...) represents a false economic boom. Bubbles aren't healthy for any region. Save the city's debt problem, the region has a sound economy. The labor market is diversified and should be a good place to ride out any economic downturn.

Right now, Pittsburgh reminds me of Minneapolis during the tough economic times of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Minneapolis, along with Seattle, was a good port in the economic storm.

[bboy36win]

Originally Posted by dugdogmaster

In my short time on this board I've come to the realization that it's impossible to post good news without people ripping it apart.

Don't let that stop you. There are plenty of casual readers - especially those from out of the region - that enjoy them.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Awesomo.2000

There are different ways to look at things. CD seems to have about 60% negative people, 40% positive.

The Pittsburgh economy has been favoring well in comparison to the rest of the nation.

Again, it doesn't matter. We will always have a few people, or perhaps one person, come start a fire and ignite the flames.

Just like you're always so positive on the Denver forum.

[Humanoid]

Anything in the housing sector of the economy (construction, real estate, etc ...) represents a false economic boom. Bubbles aren't healthy for any region.

This isn't true in general. For example the boom in housing after WW2 was in no sense a "false economic boom". Furthermore, bubbles are part of the normal business cycle. Without the steel boom many of the positive things people talk about would not exist. All those beautiful buildings, the museums etc, wouldn't exist. Without the boom in computing we may not be on the internet right now. Most progress happens during economic booms.

Economic booms aren't always followed by the sort of long term economic decay seen in Pittsburgh. It all depends on how flexible the area is and a number of other issues. Pittsburgh to this day is still a place where it pays heavily to be politically well connected.

[Awesomo.2000]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Just like you're always so positive on the Denver forum.

I posted one opinion in one post on the Denver forum. I didn't minipulate articles, I didn't bend facts to make it look my way.

I just posted my opinion that in Denver there is a lot of ugly everywhereville urban sprawl.

If you happen to notice, most of what I said was good about Denver.

I didn't go over there and try to start a flame war either.

[Awesomo.2000]

I would appreciate if people could please stop the bickering and hateful arguements to each other on this forum.

There seems to be such a us and them mentallity on this board. It is like a playground during a 5th grade recess.

[bboy36win]

Some good news this morning from the Tribune-Review:

Despite economic woes nationally, the Pittsburgh region showed signs of growth in September, with 7,000 more jobs compared with a year ago and a drop in the unemployment rate, the state said today.

"That means Pittsburgh is continuing to buck the national trend, since most major regions lost jobs in September. Many regions have lost literally tens of thousands of jobs in the past year, both in the Rust Belt and Sun Belt," said Harold D. Miller, president of Future Strategies LLC, a Downtown-based consulting firm.

"The real significant number is the 7,000-job increase from September 2007 to September 2008," Miller said, because the single-month increase is due to back-to-school employment.

The jobs data, however, was collected before the nation's economic crisis intensified, so figures may look different in October and November, Miller said.

Full article: Region bucks trend on jobs - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

[globalburgh]

BusinessWeek is also citing Pittsburgh as good place to weather the economic downturn.