Region did better in recession than it did during recovery
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It is the paradox of the Pittsburgh economy that the region can be among the top 20 strongest metropolitan areas through the recession and recovery, and among the weakest 20 regions for the recovery alone.
That's because this region, which never really boomed, never truly busted either. Instead, like a latex balloon the day after the birthday party, the economy slowly shriveled.
Pittsburgh's split rankings are unusual among the metropolitan areas included on the lists being released today by the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program. Other regions, such as the Texas regions of Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston and McAllen; Salt Lake City; and Washington, D.C., were listed as having the strongest economies both for the time period covering the recession and recovery, and for the recovery itself.
Detroit, Las Vegas and Youngstown, Ohio, were among the weakest on both lists.
Howard Wial, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Pittsburgh was sustained through the recession by its hospitals and colleges, or "eds and meds."
But while other regions that were strong through the recession are seeing tremendous growth, Pittsburgh is suffering from anemic growth in its gross metropolitan product. The region ranked 87 out of 100 metropolitan regions for growth in GMP since the lowest point of the recession and 98th for the last quarter when the region's GMP dropped 0.2 percent.
The biggest component of that, Mr. Wial said, is wages.
"Just because you got away relatively lightly on the recession doesn't mean you can't have a strong recovery," Mr. Wial said. "Pittsburgh is in pretty good shape, other than GMP."
The Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board noticed that one of the groups that had taken a hit was professionals.
In a study of wages, the board found that people who have a professional degree, such as doctors, lawyers and accountants, have seen their wages drop from $63.63 an hour in 2007 at the start of the recession to $58.97 an hour in 2010. The hourly rate remains higher than any other educated class, but is still a significant weakening of economic heft.
First Published June 22, 2011 12:00 am
