How is The Pittsburgh Job Market Faring Now?

As we enter mid-April having been witness to all the economic carnage across the country every day in our living rooms courtesy of the news media, how is the job market here in Pittsburgh faring?As a media that includes weekly print, one of the largest job boards on the Internet and Comcast Video on Demand Jobs across southwestern Pennsylvania we continue to see strong demand across most hourly job categories that is higher than what we saw a year ago.In March the Monster Employment Index, which measures the level of online recruitment activity in select markets around the country, named Pittsburgh one of the 4 hottest metros in the country for online ad volume.According to Harold Miller, President of Future Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in analysis, strategy, and communication and a contributing columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-gazette on economic matters, the reason for this strength is not job GROWTH, but the demand for replacement workers. With Pittsburgh being one of the oldest markets in the country, as measured by median age of the population, the number of residents entering retirement years is beginning to exceed the number of younger workers entering the labor force. This is creating a higher number of opportunities for employment across most categories. The most in-demand workers continue to be anything in the healthcare field.Another helpful influence to remaining strong in employment opportunity is the local housing market. While many areas of the country experienced double digit growth in home values due in part to speculators and low interest rates, the Pittsburgh housing market saw only gradual, sustainable growth of a few percentage points per year. Because of this, home values never reached levels beyond reality and so are projected to continue slow sustainable growth in the future. These reflections on our local economy do not mean we will not and have not felt the effects of the

Pittsburgh Area Manpower Survey Gives Pittsburgh’s Job Market an “A”

35% of Pittsburgh area employers plan to expand payrolls in the 2nd quarter, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released today. Only 5% plan to reduce payrolls, according to Manpower spokesperson Kelly Scott.

“Compared with the first quarter of 2008 when 20% of companies interviewed intended to add employees, and 15% planned to reduce staff levels, area hiring levels appear to be stronger,” said Scott. “Employers are more optimistic about hiring activity as compared to one year ago, when 29% of companies surveyed planned to increase staff levels and 9% expected to cut payrolls.”

For the coming quarter, job prospects appear best in Construction, Durable Goods Manufacturing, Finance/Insurance/Real Estate and Services. Employers in Transportation/ Public Utilities and Wholesale/Retail Trade voice mixed hiring intentions. Hiring in Non-Durable Goods Manufacturing, Education and Public Administration is expected to remain unchanged.

Will The Pittsburgh Region’s Median Age Help Mitigate This Years Recession?

With Pittsburgh’s job growth anemic (900 jobs added December ’06 to December ’07) and little evidence the pace will pick up soon, what is keeping Pittsburgh’s job market one of the hotter markets in the country? Our definition of “hotter” is the demand local companies have for new qualified employees (replacement workers as well as newly created jobs) compared to what we are seeing in other markets around the country.

The answer lies in the median age of our population, ranked as number 1 or 2 in the country (Allegheny County median age as of 2000 according to the Census Bureau is 39.6 years compared with a national average of 35.3). We are in a situation, even with residents working longer into retirement years, where enough of our population is leaving the job market that it is creating vacancies, or opportunities, for those entering the job market.

So far in 2008 we are seeing job market demand in the hourly arena as good as it has been in the past 6 years. Coupled with a housing market that never boomed with many other parts of the country and therefore is predicted to continue slow growth (2007 home sales were up 8% in the Pittsburgh region) and a commercial construction industry entering a multi year period of high demand we have an opportunity to whether the latest storm as well as any metro in the country.

This isn’t to say there will be no pain. Our economy and many jobs in it, of course, are dependent on demand from outside our region. However the demographics that currently exist here will help keep demand for replacement workers high and possibly at a higher rate than job losses created by the recession nationally.

This could be a harbinger of what the national job market looks like as well. Baby boomers are just now starting to hit retirement age, and as the number of retirees increases, the demand for replacement workers will grow with it.

According to an article in the February 4th edition of Workforce Magazine by Gina Ruiz “Recruiters See Strong Hiring Ahead Despite Recession Talk”. The article goes on the quote Human Resource Managers as saying the outlook for hiring demand remains strong. Staffing firms, always the leading indicator of a coming rise in unemployment rates, have remained flat across the country over the past year maintaining strong numbers from 2006.

"We’re not getting a sense that there is an impending jolt in staffing employment," says Steve Berchem, vice president of the American Staffing Association in Washington. The telltale signs of an impending recession are not there, he notes. "We’re living in a very different world," says Francis Luisi, principal at Charleston Partners, an HR executive recruiting firm in Rumson, New Jersey. Factors such as employers with global vision and the millions of baby boomers reaching retirement age could make the traditional recession-related hiring slump less severe than in past cycles, he explains. "It is simply too early to speculate on what will happen," Luisi says.

Pittsburgh’s Upcoming Official Diversity Job Fairs Just Got More Diverse

The Employment Guide®, Pittsburgh Edition has added two more partnerships to its 2008 series of job fairs to be held at the Mellon Arena. Along with the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, who is entering into the fourth year of a partnership begun in 2005, The Employment Guide will also partner with the AARP Foundation and the Allegheny County Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs.This will add tremendously to the value of the job fairs to both Pittsburgh area employers and Pittsburgh area job seekers. Area employers will have access to a more diverse group of job seekers encouraged to attend by these respective organizations and job seekers will find area employers who openly value the benefit and organizational strength provided by a more diverse workforce.The first of these events will be held on Tuesday, April 1st from 10:30 until 3:00PM. We expect 30 to 40 local employers to be on hand. These job fairs are targeted to the hourly, entry level to mid-level skilled positions like Customer Service, Banking/Finance, Retail, Hospitality, Sales, Healthcare and Allied Healthcare, Social Services, the Building Trades and more.We will update more on these events as we draw closer.

Monster Employment Index Names Pittsburgh One of Top Four Local Markets for Online Job Growth in 2007

Pittsburgh, along with Seattle, St. Louis and Houston were the Monster Local Job Index’s highest growth markets for 2007 in online job postings. Although down from the hot November level, December’s reading was still up 25 points from December of 2006."Approximately half of the Index’s decline in December 2007 from November can be attributed to seasonality as employers naturally scale back their hiring activities during the final month of the year,” said Steve Pogorzelski, Executive Vice President, Global Sales and Customer Development at Monster Worldwide. “The Index has consistently shown a seasonal slowdown every December since its inception, which is usually followed by a sizable rebound in the months that immediately follow.For a complete industry by industry run down for Pittsburgh, click here.

Click on the chart to enlarge:

After a Decade of Bad News Regarding Pittsburgh Area Manufacturing Jobs, Medrad, Inc. Offers Up 500 New Jobs over the Next Five Years

At the ribbon cutting ceremony for Medrad’s new manufacturing facility located on the former site of a U.S. Steel sintering plant in Victory Road Business Park, a state Keystone Opportunity Zone, which grants job-creating companies lower business taxes, located in Clinton Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania, Governor Ed Rendell Said “Medrad will create at least 500 jobs at its new $44.7 million, 120,000-square-foot plant, The plant's 20-acre site is in the Victory Road Business Park which will produce disposable syringes and specialty tubing used in medical imaging procedures. This is an exciting day and an important win for the commonwealth. The company conducted a worldwide search for a location for this plant and the 500 skilled manufacturing jobs it will generate. By choosing Pennsylvania, MEDRAD is sending an important message about the strength of our economy and the quality of our workforce”.

In June 2006, Governor Rendell announced a $4.4 million state investment package to help MEDRAD build its new disposables plant on the former 20-acre U.S. Steel site in the Victory Road Business Park in Clinton Township.

Medrad President and CEO John Friel said “The Saxonburg facility went from groundbreaking to start-up in just 10 months and is critical to meeting the demand for imaging procedures that enable earlier, more accurate, diagnosis and improved treatment. It provides us with needed additional plant capacity in the short term and its phased growth design gives us the capacity to add production lines in the future.

Victory Road Business Park is also home to an Aldi Foods distribution center, R.A.M. Transit Lines, an over the road trucking firm and Castcon Stone, a wholly woman owned precast concrete manufacturer.

MEDRAD is an affiliate of Bayer AG.

Pittsburgh’s November Jobless Rate Down to 4.2%

According to the Pennsylvania State Department of Labor and Industry the 7 county Pittsburgh Metro Area created a seasonally adjusted 1,100 new jobs in November. However, over 5,000 fewer people were looking for them, as the unemployment rate dropped from 4.6% to 4.2% which was down from 4.7% one year ago. Over the past year the Pittsburgh Metro job count has increased by 3,000 which translates into a .25% (that’s a ¼ of a point) increase year over year.

Strength in the Pittsburgh area came from the service sector including retail, education and health services, although hospitality saw another overall decrease. The drop in the number of people looking for employment was unexplained in the latest report. Historically it has meant fewer people thought a job search would pay off and partially due to a continued outflow of people living in the metro.

Out of the seven counties included in these figures, Allegheny and Butler counties each came in with the best individual rates seasonally adjusted at 3.9% for Butler and 4.0% for Allegheny. Other individual rates include Fayette County at 5.4% (down a full 1.1% from a year ago), Armstrong County at 4.4% (down from 5.4% 1 year ago), Beaver County at 4.4% with Washington and Westmorland Counties both coming in at 4.3%.

With housing prices remaining relatively stable in our area along with billions of dollars in new construction projects slated for 2008 and beyond, this upcoming year should still be one of continued overall job growth although it remains to be seen whether the pace of growth can pick up from an anemic ¼% over this past year.