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.

Pittsburgh Construction Job Prospects for 2008 Near Best in USA

On a subject that we have written about numerous times over the past few months, an excellent article appeared over the past weekend by Joe Grata of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette summarizing many of the large commercial/industrial projects currently underway or slated for a 2008 start. The jobs provided by these projects, as well as the number of current workers slated for retirement over the next 5 years means for the first time in a decade, Pittsburgh may have to import workers from other areas of the country.

Add to this the two billion plus dollars in road construction to be spent in southwest Pennsylvania and the opportunity for those seeking jobs in this area will be unmatched anywhere around the United States.

We will watch with interest what affect this has on the overall job numbers in the Pittsburgh Metro. Although 2007 has been the best year for job seekers since 2001, actual job growth has been anemic compared to both Pennsylvania as a whole and the country.

Pittsburgh Employment Picture Still Good For 1st Quarter 2008

According to the quarterly Manpower Survey on hiring manager’s recruitment expectations, Pittsburgh is about even with last year, with 23% of hiring managers expecting to increase staff levels, While 15% expect to decrease. One year ago the numbers were 23% and 13%.
However, this reflects a large decrease in hiring plans from the 4th quarter survey where 36% expected to increase staff.

How have the surveys actually reflected reality? This has varied quite a bit but generally has proven useful in predicting overall increases or decreases in activity.

We at The Employment Guide are seeing recruitment levels in the hourly arena slightly slower than last year for fourth quarter but still remaining historically strong.

What will Pittsburgh’s New Casino Mean to Job Seekers?

With the groundbreaking for Pittsburgh’s new Casino slated for next Tuesday December 11th there has been a lot of talk about how many jobs the Casino will bring to Pittsburgh.

Early estimates have hovered around 1,000 new jobs for what eventually will be a 5,000 slot facility. Also part of the Majestic Star Casino will be five restaurants, four bars, outdoor terraces and an amphitheater. .

Although these jobs will be one of the best things to hit Pittsburgh in years, the overall net effect needs to be seen. The Casino will attract many out of town visitors to our area and with them millions of dollars. However, these visitors will have a tendency to remain at the Casino and not travel to surrounding businesses and restaurants (see Atlantic City).

The Casino will also attract many local residents. With only so many “discretionary dollars” to go around, the local patrons will spend these dollars at the Casino instead of other area businesses and restaurants. What this will do to the levels of employment outside the Casino is open to debate. You can be sure that it will have a negative effect causing the net increase in jobs to be somewhat less than 1,000. How much less only time will tell.

Pittsburgh Unemployment Rate Flat for October

The unemployment rate, as reported by the Pennsylvania State Center for Workforce Information and Analysis, held steady in October at 4.6% for the third consecutive month. This compares to a state rate of 4.5% and a national rate of 4.7%. Pittsburgh’s rate was down one tenth of a point from a year ago. The service sector accounted for the largest gain (up 5,200 jobs) lead by the education sector as schools reached full employment. However, leisure and hospitality lost 2,800 jobs, which is considered typical as seasonal businesses wound down and students went back to school.

Education and health services reached record highs in October. Overall, the Pittsburgh metro area added 3,000 jobs from one year ago.

How does this relate to employment OPPORTUNITY in Pittsburgh?

Overall job growth in Pittsburgh has been anemic compared to both statewide and national growth figures over the past year. However, with population out migration and having one of the oldest median ages of any metro in the country, more residents are reaching retirement age than are entering the job market. This has kept opportunities for hourly and entry level jobs at high levels. We are seeing continued strong demand for mechanics, sales, nursing and allied health and unusually high demand for factory and warehouse jobs. Below is a map of unemployment rates from across the state for SEPTEMBER. Click on the image to increase size.

What? Internet Recruiting is like Internet dating?

We have read a number of good articles and blog posts recently regarding the difficulty recruiters are having in not only hiring qualified workers for open positions, but just getting them to show up for a scheduled interview. Because we deal primarily with hourly recruitment this is a complaint we are hearing more about even right here in Pittsburgh. Although this phenomenon is occurring at all levels of recruitment, it is most prevalent with hourly and entry level positions.

The primary reason is not just the “millennial mentality” or increased lack of common courtesy anyone over 30 proclaims to be experiencing with those under 30. It could be due to the fact that because so much recruiting has shifted to large online job boards, the effort in applying to an advertised position has become so small that job seekers are able to spray their resumes to literally hundreds of listed jobs, agree to interviews with anyone who bothers to email them, and only then decide which interview they would rather go to, or whether their social life will permit investing the time required to go.

Internet based recruitment has become virtually anonymous (pardon the pun) with very little “sweat equity” involved in its use by either job seekers or recruiters. The old fashioned print ads required much more work on both parties. Job seekers had to actually print a resume, sign a cover letter, lick a stamp and put it in a mail box or, heaven forbid, actually walk in and fill out an application. That’s not easy to do 100 times in a week. Here come Internet job boards and a job seeker has almost unlimited ability to send their information out.

Conversely, recruiters can write a job description one time and easily post it on enough job boards to reach literally millions of job seekers within a week.

Of course this leads us to the title of this posting. Whether you are a job seeker or a recruiter this approach can result in response overload. Just like a consumer utilizing a dating site and putting embellished information about who they are and responding only to those who appear to meet their needs (which is also embellished). How many “dates” set up through anonymous dating sites have resulted in no-shows? The recruiter will be confronted by hundreds of resumes that he or she could not possibly have time to view, let alone respond to, with a high percentage of them unqualified due to the sender not having to expend energy in applying (throw it against enough walls and see what sticks). Job seekers who complain about recruiters who do not acknowledge the receipt of their response are also victims of this development.

Perhaps this will cause the Internet recruitment backlash that newspapers have been praying for since their classifieds began losing dollars to the web six years ago. Print will offer the potential of better prequalification of applicants for recruiters while making serious job seekers more likely to know whether their response has been received.

What Workers Want

We recently read an interesting article posted on MarketWatch that dealt with the reasons workers leave a company to work somewhere else. The article was based on a survey conducted by Kenexa, a recruitment and retention consulting firm. After surveying 10,000 U.S. workers and 1,000 workers from five other countries each, the survey found that direct managers have the biggest influence on their department’s turnover. Simply treating workers with dignity and respect is the biggest concern. However, it was noted that managers aren't the only reason workers opt to stay or go. The five key drivers of retention are, according to Kenexa:

A sense that the job holds a promising future for the worker, which includes a feeling that the company will be successful and that the individual worker plays a key part in that success.

The company's involvement in corporate social responsibility initiatives. "This came as a surprise to us,"

Recognition of the worker. That's often a simple "thanks for doing a good job".

Getting paid fairly.

Deriving a sense of accomplishment from the job.

If you are a manager of other people, consider your own management style and how it affects turnover. It’s not about being friends with your employees. Good management includes the ability to reward and recognize as much as it does discipline.

Read the whole article here.