Pittsburgh to recover jobs lost in recession by 2013

The Pittsburgh metropolitan area is expected to regain the amount of jobs that it lost during the recession by the end of the year, according to a Jan. 18 report issued by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

According to the 2012 U.S. Metro Economies Employment Forecast and the Impact of Exports Report issued by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, by the end of 2012, Pittsburgh is expected to recover more than 100 percent of the 37,500 jobs it lost between December 2007 and June 2009.

As of November 2011, Pittsburgh's unemployment rate was 6.6 percent, which was below the national average of 8 percent. According to Frank Gamrat, senior research associate for the Allegheny Institute of Public Policy, the city had its highest number of jobs available in 20 years during 2011.

Currently, Pittsburgh accounts for approximately 20 percent of Pennsylvania's workforce with 1,156,400 jobs in the metro area.

"We've beat the recession pretty handily," Gamrat said. "I'm not all that concerned about the high unemployment rate because people are looking for jobs."

Each year, the report looks at the nation's 363 metropolitan areas and evaluates job and economic growth, income inequality, metro exports and housing, said Director of the Council on Metro Economies Dave Gatton.

"What we try to do is … help educate the public that economically this country functions as a group of metro economies," Gatton said. "What we found is that, yes, the economy is slowly creating jobs. What we forecast for 2012 is some good news. All but three metro areas will see job growth."

Those three cities are Carson City, Nev., Midland, Texas, and Odessa, Texas.

Gatton added that, by the end of 2011, the nation had regained 30 percent of the jobs it lost between 2007 and 2009. The study's projections show that by the end of 2012, 48 percent of lost jobs will be recovered.

Gamrat added that all industries have seen an increase in the number of jobs available.

But some areas will not see such steady increases in jobs and economic stability. Antony Davies, an economics professor at Duquesne, said that California should be regarded as an indicative "warning spot" for the difficulties that the country as a whole will face.

Since California has made similar economic and jobs decisions as the federal government, whatever the state goes through in the next five to 10 years will likely predict what the federal government will experience in the next 20 years, Davies said.

Davies said that the way out of a recession is cautious spending and decreased uncertainty, especially at a federal level.

"The last thing we need is for the government to announce a big reform," Davies said. "Our federal government is at the point where it will be mathematically impossible for them to pay on their financial obligations."