Job growth continues on an upward trend in southwestern Pennsylvania. The region added 14,700 jobs from March 2017 to March 2018—a 1.3 percent increase, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Last year, the region added 12,600 jobs – a 1.1 percent year-over-year increase, bucking a four-year trend of stagnant job growth. The latest... More
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Region Adds More Jobs
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Unemployment Trends Downward
The Pittsburgh region’s unemployment rate continued to move lower in February but remains higher than what is seen nationwide. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area fell .4 percent to 4.8 percent over the 12-month period ending in February, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor’s Center for Workforce... More
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Population Slips Again
The Pittsburgh region’s population continued to slide in 2017, falling to 2,333,367 people, according to recent population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. It marked the fifth consecutive year population has declined in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area. “The Pittsburgh region is a place that has suffered from a lot of population loss for... More
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Tipping the Scales
Southwestern Pennsylvania has the highest percentage of “healthy weight” adults among the Pittsburgh Today benchmark regions, according to 2016 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the most recent available. But here’s the catch: Fewer than 1 in 3 southwestern Pennsylvanians are a healthy weight and more than... More
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Unemployment Continues to Drop
Unemployment fell slightly in southwestern Pennsylvania during the first month of 2018, but expanding the regional labor force continues to be a problem. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area decreased from 5.3 percent in January 2017 to 4.9 percent in January 2018, according to data from the U.S. Bureau... More
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Jobs Ended Slump In 2017
Southwestern Pennsylvania awoke from four years of stagnant job growth adding 12,600 jobs in 2017 – a 1.1 percent year-over-year increase in jobs across the region, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Although it was slightly less than the average job growth among 16 Pittsburgh Today benchmark regions last year, the increase... More
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Regional Wages Slip
The average wage in the Pittsburgh region dropped slightly in the third quarter of 2017 following two quarters of steady year-over-year growth. The average worker in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area took home $1000 per week in the third quarter of 2017, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s... More
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Developing Young Minds
In early childhood, technology holds promise and pitfalls On May 1, 1969, a western Pennsylvania native with a relatively unknown children’s program testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Communication. Public broadcasting faced having its $20 million budget cut in half, and policymakers were skeptical about the educational benefit of children watching television – until Fred... More
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Mobile Source Pollution
The biggest air pollution culprit may be all of us Creeping into the Fort Pitt Tunnel, angling for space at the Parkway East’s Grant Street exit, or elbowing into a gap in traffic on the Veterans Bridge, tens of thousands of people drive or ride into and out of Downtown nearly every day. Trailing behind... More