July jobs data out for Pittsburgh (job openings, construction, versus)

[BrianTH]

Kind of a mixed bag:

Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

There is a June to July drop almost every year, which is the so-called "seasonal effect". The way to look at this is how we are doing over previous Julys in recent years, versus how we were doing over previous Junes. And it turns out that it all depends on how far back you look.

Looking back to 2009, June 2010 was plus 3600, and July 2010 was plus 4700. So that is an improvement.

Looking back to 2008, June was minus 29400, and July was minus 30500. So that is a deterioration.

Looking back to 2007, June was minus 28500, July was minus 26800, so that is back to being an improvement.

Overall I think we did OK, but we probably won't really know until we get September's numbers, when seasonal hiring should pick back up, whether or not our recent jobs recovery is still continuing.

[rhondee]

Thanks for sharing BrianTH That is good news that we've improved since last year.I honestly didn't expect an improvement, I thought it would be worse. I see the difference from 2-3 years ago, and remember there were so many more job openings then! Hopefully we can stay on track and keep improving

[Honest Bob]

Many of those so called jobs were created by the census and the rest were created by all the road construction going on.

When the bridges are repaired or the state runs out of money, the employment numbers will once again drop to new lows again.

The governor just asked every branch of the state government to cut spending at least 2% for next year. The governor also announced that they are cutting 100 state jobs. Although they did not say which people were going to get the axe and in the end, probably nobody will.

They will just eliminate some positions as people retires and not hire new people to take their place.

[BrianTH]

As a bit of a followup, Harold Miller notes that this report implies we have slipped slightly below average in terms of job growth among our benchmark cities during the last few months:

PittsburghTODAY

I'm still taking a wait-and-see attitude: we had a very good April and June, and a relatively weak May and July, and with all the seasonal effects and such I think it is too early to tell what the overall trend really looks like.

That said, it wouldn't be surprising if areas that were hit harder in the recession started to recover a bit faster than Pittsburgh. That wouldn't be much of a problem, except we added a bunch of people to the labor force during the recession, so we actually need to do more than just recover to get back to normal employment conditions. So all this is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

As a bit of a followup, Harold Miller notes that this report implies we have slipped slightly below average in terms of job growth among our benchmark cities during the last few months:

PittsburghTODAY

I'm still taking a wait-and-see attitude: we had a very good April and June, and a relatively weak May and July, and with all the seasonal effects and such I think it is too early to tell what the overall trend really looks like.

That said, it wouldn't be surprising if areas that were hit harder in the recession started to recover a bit faster than Pittsburgh. That wouldn't be much of a problem, except we added a bunch of people to the labor force during the recession, so we actually need to do more than just recover to get back to normal employment conditions. So all this is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

I was about to add to this while I didn't see the link you showed until now, I did see the link in PittsburghTODAY and thought that Harold Miller took a more pessimistic view about July. I do feel nervous about the possibility of a double dip recession.

[BrianTH]

Things definitely slowed nationally. I'd guess it is more likely than not we will avoid an actual second recession, but it would be nice if we were doing more to reduce that risk.

Anyway, here is the key chart:



While it could be better, we're still doing OK.

[Love2Golf09]

The last paragraph of that article says it all. The recession hit a lot of other cities harder than us, therefore our growth right now won't be as high as theirs. Think positive about the economy. This is the summer of recovery, remember?

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Honest Bob

Many of those so called jobs were created by the census and the rest were created by all the road construction going on.

When the bridges are repaired or the state runs out of money, the employment numbers will once again drop to new lows again.

The governor just asked every branch of the state government to cut spending at least 2% for next year. The governor also announced that they are cutting 100 state jobs. Although they did not say which people were going to get the axe and in the end, probably nobody will.

They will just eliminate some positions as people retires and not hire new people to take their place.

Perhaps. However, in this economy, a job is a job. Any increase is good.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Honest Bob

Many of those so called jobs were created by the census and the rest were created by all the road construction going on.

When the bridges are repaired or the state runs out of money, the employment numbers will once again drop to new lows again.

The governor just asked every branch of the state government to cut spending at least 2% for next year. The governor also announced that they are cutting 100 state jobs. Although they did not say which people were going to get the axe and in the end, probably nobody will.

They will just eliminate some positions as people retires and not hire new people to take their place.

Most of those jobs were gone by July with a lot of the Census jobs finished by May and June.