Jobs in July

As noted in a previous post, the fact that jobs in the Pittsburgh Region increased by 7,800 between May and June of this year wasn't really news, since the same kind of increase occurs every year due to summer hiring.

So what happened in July? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the data today, and jobs in the Pittsburgh region dropped significantly -- by 13,800 -- between June and July. That's not bad news; once again, it's not news at all, since just like jobs go up every June, they go down every July -- in fact, the previous post predicted that the drop could be 15,000 or more.

The small bit of good news is that the rate of job creation from July '06 to July '07 was 0.4%, slightly better than the 0.33% in the previous month, and the job creation rate here improved despite a slight decline in the U.S. job growth rate.

But even so, the job creation rate in Pittsburgh was only 30% of the U.S. rate. And the total number of jobs is still 12,000 below the level reached in 2001.