First-quarter earnings and local jobs ticked upward at The Bank of New York Mellon Corp., as the financial services company added 183 people in the Pittsburgh area and expanded its head count here to 6,550.

The New York-based firm had pledged to create 1,000 to 2,000 jobs in southwestern Pennsylvania in the three to five years following its purchase of Mellon Financial Corp. The deal was announced in December 2006, and it closed last July.

Since Jan. 1, 2007, the company said, it has added 482 net new jobs.

The most recent addition was last March, when it announced at least 60 new positions in its local BNY Mellon Wealth Management operation.

Meanwhile, the company recorded a profit of $746 million in the three months ending March 31, up 9 percent from the $686 million reported by the combined companies during the same year-ago period. But the profit did not meet Wall Street estimates, and market volatility forced The Bank of New York Mellon to report unrealized securities losses of $1.79 billion, up from $342 million.

The company's shares fell 94 cents yesterday, to $43.06.