A Web site designed to attract skilled workers from outside the region into the Pittsburgh job market may also offer Pittsburghers a boost against news of declines in employment nationwide, says Bill Flanagan, executive VP for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.
Targeting news of the site, Imagine My New Job, to Western Pennsylvanians last week, the conference announced that employers are advertising the current availability of 30,000 jobs in the Pittsburgh region–more than half of them offering salaries above $40,000.
“We are beginning to publicize it here within the region to let people know there actually are jobs here because there is so much anecdotal news coverage about layoffs and plant closings. We thought it would be helpful for the morale of the region to learn how many jobs can be found here,” Flanagan says. “That number has been fairly steady now for the last several weeks.”
It’s one that also seems to sustain the forecast for Western Pennsylvania as a region where diversification of the economy will moderate the effects of a downturn that has been hitting other parts of the country with tremendous force.
Imagine My New Job operates as a Web crawler that captures and categorizes Pittsburgh-related job postings from hundreds of online sites, including those of individuals companies. About 28,000 visitors have been to the site since it was launched on Sept. 9 and first advertised–primarily in the Washington-Baltimore region. It was created to align with the needs of local employers who seek skilled workers, particularly in key growth sectors of the regional economy identified through the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance.
That basic strategy will continue to guide the site’s operation, which will be supplemented by targeted advertising of its listings in places such as Northern California, “where there are talent attraction opportunities,” Flanagan says.
As a bonus, though, there’s a story to tell about the site in its home market, where it just might make some job seekers aware of new opportunities.
Source: Allegheny Conference, Bill Flanagan, Shawn Bannon
Writer: Joseph Plummer
To receive Keystone Edge free every week, click here.