'Pittsburgh Today' study: Region rates well in job creation, economy
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Pittsburgh Today & Tomorrow report.
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A new report card for Pittsburgh shows that more people are moving to this area than leaving and that the region's increasingly diversified economy is generating jobs in education, financial services, energy and medicine.
"It's a total change for our area," said Douglas Heuck, director of Pittsburgh Today, an annual effort to evaluate the city's progress in 10 categories while comparing it with 14 similarly sized regions.
Since the start of a benchmarking project done by the Post-Gazette in the mid-1990s and picked up by Pittsburgh Today, Mr. Heuck said, "we were almost always among the worst regions in terms of job growth and a dynamic economy. Now, it's remarkably different. We're leading in job growth. Our unemployment rate is well under other regions and we have a balanced, dynamic economy. That's a big turnaround."
The Pittsburgh region, which had a population of 2.35 million in the 2010 Census, was evaluated in the arts, demographics, economy, education, environment, government, health, housing, public safety and transportation. The report assessed how Pittsburgh fared in those arenas compared to Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Portland, Philadelphia and Richmond, Va.
A moderate cost of living, plenty of places for outdoor recreation, three professional sports teams and a vibrant arts community were likely among the advantages that attracted the 1,430 people who moved here between 2009 and 2010. Many of them came from New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., according to the report.
The newcomers "are people who aren't stuck with a home that's underwater somewhere else. They are coming because of the good press that Pittsburgh has been getting," Mr. Heuck said.
To some degree, the region's conservative ethos shielded it from the fallout after banks and financial markets collapsed in 2008.
"In terms of jobs, we didn't have any big wipeouts. We were a net gainer of jobs in the financial services industry, even during the toughest part of the Great Recession. That's an anomaly," Mr. Heuck said, adding that the region was "more conservative in terms of our business and lending practices. PNC Bank is a big winner throughout with its taking over National City."
First Published February 19, 2012 12:00 am
