Pittsburgh among more stable places to search for a job

One year ago, Pitt engineering student James Eliou began to work with the manufacturing… One year ago, Pitt engineering student James Eliou began to work with the manufacturing company Eaton, and his changes of securing a job straight out of college looked good.

As a ‘co-op’ student, Eliou alternates semesters between working for Eaton and taking classes at Pitt. During his second semester working there, the company’s stock began to fall.

‘At the beginning, they said it’s great to buy stock in, but after my second rotation, they were getting screwed,’ he said.

If everything goes well, ‘co-op’ students can typically expect a job offer from the company at which they work, Eliou said, but with the recent recession, Eaton can’t give him a definite answer.

But the job prospect still looks hopeful, he said. Like many Pittsburgh companies, Eaton hasn’t been hit as hard as those in other cities, and they hope to return to hiring people by next spring.

In fact, graduating students might find it easier in this economy to get hired in Pittsburgh than in many other cities, though some say the competition for jobs will be as tight here as anyplace else.

Since the decline of the steel industry, Pittsburgh has been known for high unemployment, and generations of Pittsburghers have followed the common wisdom that to get a job, people should get out of Pittsburgh.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the unemployment in Pittsburgh through 1984 as constantly more than 9 percent, while the national average remained below 8 percent each month.

But by 1999, Pittsburgh posted an unemployment rate only slightly higher than that of the national average, and last February, Pittsburgh posted an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent, just slightly below the national average of 8.1 percent, the bureau’s Web site says.

CMU Professor of Economics Marvin Goodfriend said that with the recent recession, the nation has experienced a contraction of employment across most industries.

‘This is the worst recession in the United States since World War II,’ he said.

Goodfriend said that as of last month, the current recession has lasted for 17 months and has surpassed the previous record for longest recession since the Great Depression.

These days, Jim Futrell, the vice president of market research at the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, said that Pittsburgh has built up a stable and relatively recession-resistant economy that missed the full blow of the banking crisis.

‘Layoffs are still outpacing new employment, but we’re doing ok,’ said Futrell. ‘We did not get caught up in the boom.’

Those in the fields like financial services and engineering shouldn’t have much trouble finding a job in Pittsburgh, he said.

PNC and Mellon banks mostly avoided the losses that other banks suffered, and Westinghouse has been relatively unaffected, he said. Also, natural gas companies have actually expanded their exploration in the area.

Christopher Briem, of Pitt’s Center for Social and Urban Research, said Pittsburgh has maintained its economy by staying out of the dotcom boom of the late ’90s and, more recently, the housing boom. In both cases, Pittsburgh missed out on the growth and the bust.

PNC and Mellon avoided the banking crisis by staying away from predatory lending practices, which led to defaults on mortgages across the country, he said.

Instead, more stable industries such as healthcare, education and some technology-based industries have slowly reshaped Pittsburgh.

Also, with the revival of the nuclear industry, Westinghouse Electric Company has experienced an increase in business and a need for employment, he said.

‘A few wins like that, and you get the stability you need,’ said Briem.

Because of Westinghouse and similar companies, engineers like Eliou have continued to find jobs in the region, he said.

But Briem added that the city shouldn’t worry about keeping people around, because most people in Pittsburgh have lived here all their lives. He said Pittsburgh should work to attract international talent that will help develop new industry.’

‘There was a period of time when people really were leaving, but that has stopped,’ he said.

‘ Cheryl Finlay, director of Pitt’s Office of Student Employment and Placement Assistance, said Pittsburgh has held strong during the economic recession.

‘Pittsburgh is thriving and surviving in some sectors,’ said Finlay. ‘We’re going to lose jobs just like some other places but not by the same volume.’

The education and health care sectors, the so-called ‘eds and meds’ of Pittsburgh, specifically have dodged most of the negative effects, she said.

But the question still remains whether or not graduating students will want to stay in Pittsburgh.

Twenty-one percent of graduates from the class of 2008 have chosen to remain in Pittsburgh and 38 percent have settled somewhere in western Pennsylvania, Finlay said a survey done by Student Affairs concluded.

Another survey of the current junior class revealed an overwhelming preference towards staying in Pennsylvania after graduation, said Finlay, but the survey didn’t break the results down into smaller regions.

‘ ‘Many students have been pretty restricted as to where and for whom they want to work,’ said Finlay. ‘They have to come to terms with the economic reality. ‘

Employers inside and outside Pittsburgh have become more selective, she said. At a recent job fair in New York, Finlay said she spoke with many employers from around the country who said they ignore resumes with cover letters that looks like they came from a standard template.’

‘ ‘Today you’ve got to be even more competitive than you were a year ago,’ she said.

Even while being competitive, not everyone can find jobs here. Second-year Pitt senior Steve Krhovsky hasn’t faired quite as well as Eliou in his job search, and said he plans to look outside of Pittsburgh for his dream job.

Krhovsky, who will graduate this year with a bachelor’s degree in theatre arts, said he wants to work in the film industry but can’t find the kind of work he wants in the city.’

‘There are a lot of projects around but not necessarily what I want,’ he said. ‘Most of them are small budget works.’

Even with the many recent Hollywood movies filmed in the area, Krhovsky said all the cast and crew comes out of Hollywood and most productions only take extras from the local area.

For now, Krhovsky said he plans to work through the summer before going to New York or Los Angeles and eventually pitching an idea for a television show.’

Currently, Krhovsky said he works at a RadioShack and as a special events videographer on the side.

He finds jobs videotaping weddings and other events through word of mouth and charges less than most professionals, he said. While the work provides extra money, he said, he wouldn’t like to make it a career.

Also, Krhovsky said he would like to leave Pittsburgh because, like many others, he has lived in the area all his life and so has most of his family. His father, a ‘true yinzer,’ grew up in the Allegheny Valley, and his grandfather once worked as the brewmaster for Iron City Beer, he said.

‘I feel like if I don’t get out of the area, I won’t be motivated to fully follow what I want to do,’ he said.

One group, the Pittsburgh Regional Internship Collaborative Enterprise, has taken up the mission of connecting high school and college students with paid internships and jobs specifically in the Pittsburgh region.

Melissa Price, who oversees the project, said the group works directly with local companies to match them up with job candidates.

The program also holds presentations about Pittsburgh, its neighborhoods and its affordable living, she said.

‘We try and get young people excited about Pittsburgh and about staying in Pittsburgh,’ she said.

Lately, she said, the group has noticed a decrease in the number of companies willing to pay students for an internship or to hire inexperienced workers directly out of school.

To combat this, she said, the group has expanded its range of students it works with from mostly financial and business majors to students studying engineering and the liberal arts.’

To find a job in the area, Price said, students should take advantage of their family and community networks and explore every opportunity.

‘The jobs are out there,’ she said. ‘You just have to find them.’