The seven-county Pittsburgh region created more jobs in March and more people returned to the workforce, pushing the unemployment rate down to below to pre-pandemic levels of 2020, according to data released Tuesday.
The area’s economy added 13,200 nonfarm jobs in March, raising the level to 1.23 million, which was 27,000 more than a year ago, according to the state’s Center for Workforce Information and Analysis. The jobs count in March, however, was still 49,000 less than in March 2020 for the seven-county region — Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
The region’s economy still is struggling to return to the pre-covid period, in terms of jobs and the labor force, said Chris Briem, regional economist for the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Social and Urban Research.
“We’re still pretty flat. We’re not rebounding much,” Briem said.
About 15,000 people returned to the labor force in March to raise the number of workers and those seeking work to 1.71 million, but the region’s labor force still is 34,000 fewer than it was in March 2020, based on a count of workers not adjusted for seasonal hiring factors. Data for the jobs report is collected in mid-month, which was before the state-ordered shutdown of businesses in March 2020.
The jobless rate fell 0.2 of a percentage point to 5%, a full percentage point from the 6% rate of March 2020, and down from the March 2021 rate of 7.1%. But, because of the annual revisions in the labor force statistics, the state initially reported the February jobless rate was 4.9%.
The leisure and hospitality industry, which had suffered from the covid-related shutdowns, bounced back in March, adding 3,800 jobs to 103,300, moving closer to the pre-pandemic level of 111,100 in March 2020.
“We’re just not able to get any momentum,” said Frank Gamrat, an economist and executive director of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a Castle Shannon-based think tank.
The Pittsburgh region is “lagging way behind” other regions in recovering from the pandemic, Gamrat said.
Gamrat blamed that lack of economic gains, in part, because “the policies aren’t just pro-business.”
