I haven't done one of these in a while but things have changed so I think it is worth checking in.
After a mild down year for Pittsburgh MSA employment in 2013, 2014-16 were three very slow growth years, but growth accelerated in 2017:
As always, the overall number obscures some underlying churn, and here are some of the sectors that explain that acceleration.
First, it was a good year for the big white collar job categories. Professional and Business Services, which includes everything from lawyers to laboratories, has been a mainstay of growth since the Great Recession (although I am a little worried about a possible tech bubble 2.0):
Eds and Meds and Financial Activities had slowed down in recent years, but had a good 2017:
Manufacturing and Mining both continued to have down years, but at least the pace of the decrease was much lower, and they might be finding a bottom (note Mining is really a small category, despite the hype):
Leisure and Hospitality has been accelerating recently:
Finally, aside from a bump around the time of the stimulus and 2010 Census, losses of government jobs have been an ongoing drag on the overall numbers:
All this continues to help explain both demographic trends (e.g., the ongoing blue to white collar shift explaines the fact the younger population in the area tends to be much more highly educated on average than the older population), and development patterns (e.g., there continues to be growing demand for the sorts of housing young professionals want, but we also need affordable housing for people in, say, Leisure and Hospitality jobs which is convenient to the relevant jobs centers).
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