The latest figures on employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the region's employment climate as mostly cloudy and cool, but there is a silver lining in those clouds.
First, the cloudy and cool part. Total nonfarm employment in the 10-county Philadelphia metropolitan region, which spans parts of four states, continued to fall in November 2010, marking the 29th straight month of declining employment in the region. However, the year-to-year decline in employment in November was a mere 0.1% - the smallest drop recorded during this period.
Now for the silver lining: Employment rose in November in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs. Employment in the city rose by 3,500 to 656,800, an 0.5% increase from last November, and the five-county Southeastern Pennsylvania region picked up 5,200 jobs to reach 1,865,700, an 0.3% rise.
In the city, the sectors that posted the strongest job growth were:
Education and health services. The "eds and meds" employed 215,700 in November, an increase of 5,200 jobs, or 2.5% over 2009.
Mining, logging and construction. Although this sector added only 200 jobs in November to bring total employment to 10,000, that's good enough for a 2.0% increase over 2009 levels.
The eds and meds also led the pack in job growth in the five counties, adding 8,900 jobs in November to employ 436,800, 2.1% more than last year. Coming in second were other services, which employed 82,500 in November, 1,000 (1.2%) more than last year.
Regionwide, three sectors posted job gains of 1% or more: Education and health services (total employment: 573,500, up 10,500 [1.9%]), leisure and hospitality (total employment: 216,500, up 3,000 [1.4%]), and other services (total employment: 119,600, up 1,500 [1.3%]).
While big government may still be a bane to many, in this region, it's getting smaller: government employment fell by 2.4% from 2009 to 2010, a percentage loss equaled only in the manufacturing sector. In terms of body count, that's 8,700, the largest loss in numbers of any sector. But with 355,500 people employed regionwide, government remains the fourth-largest sector of the reigional economy, behind "eds and meds," trade, transportation and utilities, and professional services. Those first three sectors all added jobs in this region from November 2009 to November 2010, as did leisure and hospitality, the fifth-biggest employment source in the region.
Even though total employment in the region fell in November from year-ago levels, it has been slowly but steadily growing from month to month this past fall, to the point where there are 2,712,300 jobs in the 10-county region. That's not quite one job for every other adult Philadelphian, however, so job-seekers still need to keep their skills finely honed. The resources available on PhillyJobs.com can help.
By Sandy Smith
Sandy Smith has been blogging for PhillyJobs.com since 2010. In addition to launching award-winning newspapers and newsletters at the University of Pennsylvania and Widener University, Sandy is a veteran writer whose articles and essays have appeared in several local and regional media outlets, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia CityPaper, and PGN, and on several Web sites. He is also an active participant on several discussion boards, including PhiladelphiaSpeaks.com, where he posts as “MarketStEl.” He has been supporting himself through a combination of freelance and part-time work and unemployment compensation since early 2009 and is himself an active job-seeker. Read more of his posts on PhillyJobsBlog.com and follow him to Beyond.com for more job opportunities.
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