February is Over, Is the Sky Falling Yet?

After two weeks of being pounded by economic news in the media declaring recession, high energy costs, a housing market in the tank and consumer confidence at the lowest level since the outbreak of the Black Death we were inclined to just throw our hands up in the air, give up, and head for the hills.

But wait, companies in Pittsburgh are still hiring. Our business has not tanked. What is going on? How can we be at deaths door economically and still see a hiring level as good as a year ago and better than two years ago?

While it is true that around the country our economy is in or near recession it appears many areas around the country are not going to suffer the kinds of job losses that were experienced after 9-11. There are many reasons for this as we have mentioned in prior posts.

While it is true business is cyclical and downturns happen it is also true that the constant media barrage of bad news and the ignoring of good news, by themselves, drive consumer moods downward more than most individual circumstances warrant. This is not to discount the pain being felt by those who are losing a home or a job but by historic standards the economic picture, especially in the Pittsburgh metro, is not that bad and the near term prospects remain very good.

The incessant recession talk by major media continues the attempt to drive readership and (ironically) sell more soap by sensational headlines decrying doom and gloom. We wonder where we, as an economy, would be if the paradigm of major media was the opposite, where headlining strong job growth areas, good economic stories (yes, they still exist) and proposed solutions to current problems was the norm while relegating “bad news” to the back (web) pages.