The seven-county Pittsburgh region added 15,200 jobs in April, raising the total to about 1.11 million — which is almost 142,000 more than the pandemic-restricted economy of a year ago, according to new state labor-force figures.
The region saw nonfarm jobs rise to 1,111,700 as 6,500 more construction jobs were added in April, with home building in full swing. Another 3,900 jobs were added in leisure and hospitality as pandemic restrictions loosened. Various professional and business services saw 4,200 jobs added.
The state’s Center for Workforce Information and Analysis pointed out, however, that the job gains, as adjusted for seasonal hiring factors, was a more modest 1,700. The number of jobs added in the leisure and hospitality sector in April was about average, said Laurel Riegel, business and industry analyst for the workforce information center.
“We’re starting to come back … but we still have a long way to go,” said Frank Gamrat, executive director of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a Castle Shannon-based think tank.
Although the economy in the region — Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties — continues on its road to recovery, there still are 80,300 fewer nonfarm jobs than existed in April 2019, a year before covid clamped down on the nation’s economy.
With the additional jobs, the unemployment rate in the Pittsburgh region fell to 7.4% in April, down from 7.6% in March, as adjusted for seasonal hiring factors. An indication of how far the economy has come in a year can be seen in the jobless rate of April 2020, which hit 17.1%.
But, a factor in the drop in the region’s unemployment rate is that 1,200 people left the laborforce — those working and looking for work — in April. Just as concerning is that there are only 400 more people in the laborforce — 1.17 million — than in April 2020.
Gamrat believes the lack of expansion in the laborforce is the result of the extra $300 a week federal benefits that eligible jobless workers will receive until Labor Day.
“We have incentivized people to not go back to work, and they are not going back to work,” Gamrat said. That difficulty in employers finding people to work could hold back the region’s economic recovery, he noted.
There could be a spike in the laborforce in September when the extra benefits expire, he said.
