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Tuesday, May 07, 2019  09:05 AM  (21)

Pittsburgh's Opportunity Occupations

In April, researchers at the Federal Reserve Banks of Cleveland and Philadelphia updated their ongoing research on opportunity employment.  Opportunity employment is defined as jobs accessible to workers without a bachelor’s degree and typically paying above the national median income (2017: $37,690), adjusted for local cost of living differences. The report contrasted the concentration of opportunity employment across 121 metropolitan areas in the United States and the characteristics of opportunity occupations – occupations that typically meet the definition of opportunity employment - within each region.

For the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2017, 25% of regional jobs were estimated to be in opportunity occupations. 27% of the region’s jobs typically required a bachelor’s degree or higher and 47.9% of regional jobs were estimated to be lower-wage employment. There were an estimated 2.7 residents (Age 25–64) without a bachelor’s degree to opportunity Jobs in the Pittsburgh region. The top opportunity occupations for Pittsburgh in 2017 were (1) Registered Nurses, (2) Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers and (3) Maintenance and Repair Workers.

Pittsburgh ranked 55 out of the 121 regions studied for the concentration of opportunity employment within the labor market. However, of the metropolitan areas studied that were part of the Fourth Federal Reserve District (Ohio, Eastern Kentucky, Western Pennsylvania and part of northern West Virginia) Pittsburgh had the lowest share of opportunity employment.  Cleveland is estimated to have 30.1% of its regional jobs in opportunity occupations. Cincinnati had a comparable 29.1% of regional jobs in opportunity occupations and the highest share of opportunity employment was in the 4^th District was in Toledo, Ohio (34%).

For more see:

OPPORTUNITY OCCUPATIONS Revisited - Exploring Employment for Sub-Baccalaureate Workers Across Metro Areas and Over Time (April 2019)

For profiles of opportunity occupations in metropolitan areas of Fourth Federal Reserve District (including Pittsburgh) click here.

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