Regional News

Home › Article

Noteworthy, Fall 2023

by PQ Staff

A Pittsburgh Great for 140 yearsIt was all the way back in 1883 that captain john B. Ford and John Pitcairn started the first commercially successful plate glass factory in the U.S., in Creighton. By the early 1900s, the company was expanding into paint, because paint and glass reached customers through the same distribution channels. …

Noteworthy, Fall 2023 Read More »

Latin American Cultural Center Opens in Oakland

by Julia Fraser
A woman spins a crisp white thread, a vermillion sky rises over water and doves hover in Paula Nicho Cúmez’s painting, “Process and Vision of the Peace Accords.” She composed the painting in the wake of the 1996 Peace Accords in Guatemala, which brought an end to the country’s 36-year civil war. “The only thing …

Latin American Cultural Center Opens in Oakland Read More »

Pittsburgh’s Immigrant Puzzle

by Jeffery Fraser
Allegheny county’s small population bump from 2010 to 2020 owes much to a spike in the number of immigrants who decided to make it their home. They accounted for more than 60 percent of the 27,000 residents the county added overall. Without the gains in foreign-born residents, southwestern Pennsylvania as a region would have been …

Pittsburgh’s Immigrant Puzzle Read More »

Pittsburgh’s Population Problem

by Julia Fraser
Butler street in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood wears the face of a young adult enclave. Seven breweries and counting, a cider house, a craft beer store attached to an independent movie theater and bars with outdoor beer gardens flow through the neighborhood, as does a healthy population of young men with dense beards who patronize those …

Pittsburgh’s Population Problem Read More »

Pittsburgh’s 2023 Economic Forecast

by Kurt Rankin and Stuart Hoffman
With the U.S. facing a strong possibility of recession in 2023, the Pittsburgh metropolitan statistical area is at risk of losing more than its fair share of economic activity in such a downturn. Pittsburgh’s labor market has not yet recovered to its pre-pandemic levels, in terms of employee headcount, in eight of 11 major industrial …

Pittsburgh’s 2023 Economic Forecast Read More »

Pandemic Learning Loss

by Julia Fraser
For decades, educators fretted over how to prevent “summer slide,” the learning loss that students often experience over summer vacation. The COVID pandemic raised the stakes. Mounting evidence suggests that periodic school closings, the abrupt shift to remote learning and other disruptions profoundly set back students’ education, accelerating learning loss into a national crisis — …

Pandemic Learning Loss Read More »

Unemployment Drops, Jobs Growth Slows

by Julia Fraser
November unemployment in southwestern Pennsylvania fell to a level the region hasn’t seen in almost 50 years. But stagnant job growth and a dip in the labor force continued to challenge local employers, according to recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, 4.0 percent of workers …

Unemployment Drops, Jobs Growth Slows Read More »

Regional Unemployment At “Extremely Low” Rate 

by Julia Fraser
The unemployment rate in southwestern Pennsylvania fell to one of the lowest rates in the past 50 years, according to the latest Pennsylvania Department of Labor data.   In September, 4.2 percent of workers in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area were looking for work. That rate tied for the lowest unemployment rate in the region …

Regional Unemployment At “Extremely Low” Rate  Read More »

Region Continues Adding Jobs, But Can’t Erase Pandemic Losses

by Julia Fraser
Jobs ticked up in the Pittsburgh region in September, but incremental gains haven’t been enough to bring the number of jobs back up to pre-pandemic levels. Employers in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area added 11,700 jobs from August to September, a 1 percent monthly gain, according to recent data from the U.S. Bureau of …

Region Continues Adding Jobs, But Can’t Erase Pandemic Losses Read More »

Unemployment Remains Low; Hiring Remains Challenging

by Julia Fraser
Regional unemployment in August remain unchanged at 4.4 percent, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor.   “There’s only been a few months in the last 50 years in which the regional unemployment rate has been lower,” said Chris Briem, a regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh University Center for Social and Urban Research.  “The …

Unemployment Remains Low; Hiring Remains Challenging Read More »

The Workforce Training Swamp

by Julia Fraser
When southwestern Pennsylvania’s steel mills began falling like dominoes in the 1980s, some 3,400 workers turned to publicly funded workforce training programs for help shifting careers. One was a robotics training course offered by the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) and its partner, Westinghouse Electric Corp. Federal dollars flowed to CCAC to pay for …

The Workforce Training Swamp Read More »

Let’s Take “the Pits” out of Pittsburgh

by Douglas Heuck
In my spring column, I wrote about the borough of Wilkinsburg, encouraging Pittsburgh City Council to vote in favor of annexing the failed municipality. When I wrote it though, it had been years since I’d veered off of Wilkinsburg’s main drag — Penn Avenue — and actually explored the borough. Last month, I drove all …

Let’s Take “the Pits” out of Pittsburgh Read More »

Opportunity Awaits, but…

by Jeffery Fraser
Kendell Pelling knows vacant and blighted property. For more than 15 years he was in charge of land recycling at East Liberty Development, Inc. There, he saw how, even in a real estate market that was heating up, new houses priced to sell couldn’t find a buyer when blight was nearby. But once the abandoned …

Opportunity Awaits, but… Read More »

The View from Erie

by Steve Hallock
Peering out at the choppy waves from the shore of Lake Erie, the businessman sees opportunity. The fisherman envisions a trout dinner. The tourist anticipates a boat ride. The farmer appreciates the plentiful water supply. The environmentalist frets about lake pollution. James Grunke, president of the Erie Regional Chamber & Growth Partnership, sees all of …

The View from Erie Read More »

PLACE YOUR BETS

by Julia Fraser
In the mid-1960s, public- and private-sector leaders in southwestern Pennsylvania threw their support behind an effort to diversify the region’s steel industry-reliant economy by developing the emerging rapid-transportation market in their backyard. Their hopes were pinned to Skybus, an innovative, automated transportation system that allowed for congestion-free travel on tracks high above streets and highways. …

PLACE YOUR BETS Read More »

College Students Wanted

by Julia Fraser
When the United States slid into the Great Recession, throwing millions out of work, America went back to school. Older adults enrolling in community colleges or other two-year programs led a surge in enrollment that saw colleges add 2.5 million students from 2007-2010, a 14 percent enrollment spike. School administrators were elated. “We all thought, …

College Students Wanted Read More »

On a Pedestal, Spring 2022

by PQ Staff
A Steeler for LifeWas it really 18 years ago that Ben Roethlisberger took the field as a rookie with the Steelers? How the years have come and gone. And while last season’s Steelers eked out a winning season with an unlikely playoff appearance that ended in lopsided defeat, the team gave us something that’s a …

On a Pedestal, Spring 2022 Read More »

Unemployment Drops; More Workers Needed

by Julia Fraser
Unemployment ticked down in southwestern Pennsylvania to begin 2022, but the region’s labor force woes persisted, according to the latest Pennsylvania Department of Labor data.   In January, 5.1 percent of workers in seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area were unemployed –a drop from 5.3 percent in December 2021. But the unemployment rate in the region remained …

Unemployment Drops; More Workers Needed Read More »

Weak Regional Jobs Picture Continues

by Julia Fraser
Employers in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area shed 25,000 jobs from December 2021 to January 2022 – a 2.2 percent monthly loss, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Seasonal job losses are typical in January, but other data offer little hope that local jobs will snap back to pre-COVID levels. Annual revisions …

Weak Regional Jobs Picture Continues Read More »

Infrastructure Bonanza

by Jeffery Fraser
It promises to be a busy couple of years for Vincent Valdes. As the federal government begins to pump $1.2 trillion into the nation’s infrastructure, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission he leads is in the thick of discussions around how to spend the region’s share, which will be counted in hundreds of millions of dollars and …

Infrastructure Bonanza Read More »

A Troubling Economic Picture

by Stuart Hoffman & Kurt Rankin
The Pittsburgh metropolitan statistical area’s economy enters 2022 in much the same condition as it exhibited prior to the pandemic. That is, growing, but doing so at a pace below the national average and under the yoke of subpar labor market conditions. Even though the bar has been lowered as to what economic growth targets …

A Troubling Economic Picture Read More »

Taking the Pre-Midterm Election Pulse

by Steve Hallock
A billboard along U.S. route 22 just west of Johnstown offers up to $54,000 and “guaranteed employment” for incoming nursing students at nearby Mount Aloysius College. As the billboard signifies, higher education institutions have taken a lead role in Johnstown’s transition from steel to health care as the primary economic driver. The burgeoning health care …

Taking the Pre-Midterm Election Pulse Read More »

Top
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...
Responsive Menu
Add more content here...