Jobs Climb Slowly in November

Employers in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area added 1,300 jobs to their payrolls from October 2020 to November 2020. But the bump in hiring still left the region 85,900 jobs short of the number on the books in November 2019, which is a 7.3 percent decline, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

All 16 metropolitan regions tracked by Pittsburgh Today experienced job losses from November 2019 to November 2020. The rate of job loss in the Pittsburgh MSA was higher than the 6.8 percent average decline among the benchmark regions.

Austin’s job market, which reported a 1.1 percent year-over-year loss in November, weathered the recession the best among the benchmark regions. Boston posted the worst decline, shedding 9.8 percent of its jobs compared to 12 months earlier.

All industry sectors in the Pittsburgh region lost jobs over the past 12 months, with the exception of financial activities, which added 0.4 percent more jobs. The leisure and hospitality sector, which includes restaurants and hotels, has been hit the hardest. The sector shed nearly 30 percent of the jobs it had in November 2019. And the outlook is not much better in December, with new pandemic restrictions raising concern about further job losses.

“We’re still stuck way down from we were a year ago,” said Chris Briem, regional economist at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Social and Urban Research. “Any changes within industries is minimal. Whatever immediate rebound that came earlier this year from public health restrictions being lifted or behavior changing, that has ended.”