Study Clarifies the Pittsburgh Job Market

The report, published by the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board, studied online job postings from May 2005 through July 2010 and found that 60% of posted jobs required more than a high school diploma, but less than a bachelor's degree. Nearly half of the postings fell into five categories: management, computer and math, sales, administrative support and health care. Board CEO Stephani Pashman says they also found that jobs are designated by skill and background, "and not by industry--which tells us that we no longer have to live in a world where you spend your whole career in health care or financial services. You can actually move across industry." She says they were happy to find that the majority of jobs posted offered salary ranges that were significantly above he recommended family sustaining level of $28,500. They conducted the survey of jobs using the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry's Center for Workforce Information and Analysis, Wanted Analytics and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pashman says their next step is to confirm those numbers with companies and nonprofits, and move forward from there. "Our role is to understand where the mismatch is between the open jobs and the people looking for those jobs and then figure out how we can design programs and training to get people ready to fill the available jobs." The full report is available at trwib.org.