The Pittsburgh Regional Alliance‘s comprehensive tally of new investment and related job growth in the region has traced an uptrend for the last two years, just as the nation’s economy headed into a decline. While news elsewhere highlighted the worldwide collapse of capital, the 10 counties of southwestern Pennsylvania reported planned capital investments of more than $4.2 billion and a related benefit of more than 30,000 new or retained jobs in 2008.
Is the region’s upswing likely to continue? Reviewing southwestern PA’s two-year winning streak last week, PRA President Dewitt Peart countered the idea that global doldrums might suddenly suck the wind out of the region’s sails. The data, which captures planned investments, including nearly $2 billion by manufacturing giants Allegheny Technologies and U.S. Steel, points forward.
“The figures included are prospective, investments that will be happening over time,” he says. “We are looking at 2009, 2010, and to jobs that are going to be created.”
The broad explanation for Pittsburgh’s timely reversal of fortune is diversification, which the PRA data underscores.
“A little over 60 percent of the wins were in our key [growth] sectors-information technology, life sciences and advanced manufacturing, ” Peart says.
Moreover, other trends reinforce the region’s adaptability. Of 290 major projects that the PRA tagged as “wins” in 2008, 40 projects developed in the domain of business services and headquarters operations, emphasizing that a wide-range of enterprises find the region to be hospitable to their growth.
“On a trend basis, Pittsburgh outperforms the rest of the country in those types of operations,” he says.
Similarly, the region’s economy has been growing in “the energy space” with major projects by energy innovation, distribution and control companies as well as developers of energy resources.
“Pittsburgh is on the radar screen,” Peart emphasizes. “We have really solid interest from prospects looking at the region for expansions and new locations. We are busier than we have ever been right now.”
Source: Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, Dewitt Peart, Philip Cynar
Writer: Joseph Plummer
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