Lots of Positive Signs for Pittsburgh in 2016

"Metropolitan Pittsburgh is a picture of stability entering 2016," according to an article by Stuart Hoffman, who proceeds to provide a veritable laundry list of good news:

Job growth is outpacing the Pennsylvania state average, and the unemployment rate for the seven-county region is steady near 5 percent. 2015 brought a resurgence in labor force growth, providing local employers a wider pool of talent from which to fill their ever-expanding payroll needs. Pittsburgh will manage steady gains throughout the coming year thanks to continued consumer spending.

Among the many other examples of good news included by Hoffman in this comprehensive overview of the Pittsburgh economy: "job growth here finished 2015 at a year-over-year pace as strong as any since 2001." And perhaps in an example of burying the lede, from a planner's point of view anyway: "Pittsburgh’s long-time trend of population declines is in the early stages of a turnaround," says Hoffman, thanks to the overall positive direction of Pittsburgh.