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 number of nonfarm jobs in the seven-county Pittsburgh region rose to 1,159,400 last month, according to the state Department of Labor and Industry. On a month-to-month basis, the region's jobs count in September increased by 10,400 from August.
"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.
The region's unemployment rate in September was 5.4 percent, a two-tenths of a percentage point decline from 5.6 percent in August. All seven counties in the region -- Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland -- experienced a drop in the unemployment rate in September, the state said. In September, Pennsylvania's jobless rate was 5.7 percent and the nation's was 6.1 percent.
A separate survey found that employment among those living in the region rose by 6,000 to 1.157 million in September from August, and by 10,000 compared to year ago. The increase in residential employment could be an indication people from other regions are coming to the Pittsburgh area in search of work, Miller said.
The jump in September's job count can be traced to a rise in jobs at colleges and universities, which rose to 38,200 from 32,500 in August, and local government jobs, which include school districts, increased by 11,000 to 55,000 in September from August. Transportation and warehousing, which includes school bus drivers, jumped by 3,300 to 44,600 in September from August.
Without the seasonal bump of employment in schools and universities, the region's jobs count "would be relatively flat, or a small decrease," said Frank Gamrat, senior research associate at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a think tank in Castle Shannon.
The monthly jobs increase shows how important education is to the region's economy, Gamrat said. From September 2000 to 2008, the region's goods-producing sector lost about 33,000 jobs, while the health care and education sectors gained a similar amount, he said.
"If it wasn't for education and health care, this area would be in trouble, We've turned ourselves into a medical center. It kind of helps to buffer the negative effects of the recession," Gamrat added.
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