The seven-county region -- Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties -- registered its highest jobs count since June 2001, said Lauren Nimal, analyst with the state's work force information center. But, the year-over-year jobs increase of 700 was the smallest change since February 2006, when the state began posting such information, Nimal said.
The nonfarm jobs increased by much less than 1 percent from June 2007, an indication that the nation's economic problems are affecting Pittsburgh, said Jake Haulk, an economist and president of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a think tank in Castle Shannon.
"Pittsburgh, in the first half of the year, had been fighting the slowdown, (but) the weakness in the national economy and the high gas prices have started to make their impact felt here," Haulk said.
A monthly survey of employers in the region showed they created 5,600 jobs in June, boosting the total to 1,165,100 compared with May, the state's Center for Workforce Information and Analysis said.
A separate survey of residents in the seven-county region showed that fewer were working last month, pushing the jobless rate up by 0.2 percentage point to 5.1 percent, the state said.
Residential employment, adjusted for seasonal factors, fell by 5,300 to 1,150,800 in June compared with May. More than one-half of that decline occurred in Allegheny County, where residential employment fell by 2,800 to 603,500 compared with May.
The number of unemployed residents increased by 1,400 to 61,600 in June compared with May. A reduction in the labor force of 3,900 people was not enough to keep the unemployment rate from rising.
A bright spot in the employment picture is the service-providing sector, which topped 1 million jobs for the first time, because of a 4,000-job increase from May. Leisure and hospitality increased by 3,100 jobs in June to 116,300 jobs, but the year-over-year figures were the same as June 2007.
Education and health services jobs fell by 900 to 229,300 in June, from 230,200 in May, but it was up by 5,300 from the June 2007 total of 224,000.
"They (education and health services) are basically carrying the economy. That's not much to build an economy on," Haulk said, noting that much of the education services and the region's health care services are supported by the government.
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