Summer hiring has helped to drive employment growth early in the recovery from COVID-19, but hiring for more permanent jobs has remained flat since last fall.
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starting [Sunday], I think will be a big help.
“And [with] pent-up consumer demand,” Futrell continued, “people, I think, are really going to want to go out . once everybody gets vaccinated, and try to resume as normal a life as possible.”
The Allegheny Conference report is based on employment data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. It covers Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
Its February job figures represent a 7.5% decline in employment since February 2020, the last month before COVID-19 forced the widespread closure of businesses. Following an upswing in hiring last summer, year-over-year job losses in the Pittsburgh area have hovered between 7.5 and 8.6% each month over the past six months, the Allegheny Conference said in its report.
Megan Harris / 90.5 WESA
Pandemic-related job losses hobbled the local economy through the winter, with the Pittsburgh region sustaining 87,800 fewer jobs in February compared to a year before, according to a new report from the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. But more recent, and more encouraging, national figures suggest the local economy could start to turn around in coming months.
That s the assessment of Jim Futrell, vice president of market research at the Allegheny Conference. He cites as evidence the fact that in March, the country experienced its largest jobs gain since August.
“I think what that does is give a good leading indication of some of the things we might see here in the region as we go into spring,” Futrell said. “The lifting of the restaurant restrictions starting [Sunday], I think will be a big help.