Creating Jobs

Improving Pittsburgh’s Economic Development Climate and Creating Jobs

After taking office during difficult financial times, Luke used his common-sense approach to turn around the City’s finances and help create new jobs and a better business climate in Pittsburgh. Luke boosted business’s confidence in Pittsburgh’s future with four bond-rating upgrades while working hard to encourage new growth in industries such as biotechnology. New incentive packages from the state have lured the film industry back to the City. With safe and clean communities, Pittsburgh's tourism industry is growing and visitors are eating in our restaurants and shopping in our neighborhood business districts. In 2008, the City lured a record number of conventions, resulting in $272 million in direct suspending. Still, Pittsburgh’s economy is rooted in rich education and medical institutions – “ed’s and med’s” – and the Mayor is leveraging the stability of these sectors to encourage more growth.

Pittsburgh is a model for other cities facing tough times. With a strong “ed’s and med’s” sector and record construction numbers, job growth in the City is increasing and our unemployment rate is staying well below the national average. In 2008, construction permits reached an all time high of 1 billion. Luke believes that the development of a $290 million arena in the Hill District represents an opportunity to leverage more investment in the neighborhood and create more jobs. Luke is making sure he is connecting the people of the Hill District to the jobs right in their backyard. Part of this development package will include a neighborhood job/resource center and a neighborhood grocery store, creating more than __ jobs.

Luke is getting together the areas’ top employers to connect more people to the thousands of job-openings in Pittsburgh. Tapping into one of Pittsburgh’s best resources, the CareerLinks program, he is identifying workforce training needs that will connect more people to jobs and create more growth.

Third-party sources are verifying Pittburghers already know: We are experiencing our Third Renaissance. Forbes Magazine declared Pittsburgh one of the “best places to look for employment in the new year” and identified it as one of the top 10 cities for job growth in 2009. Moody’s Investors Services Red-Yellow-Green report declared Pittsburgh the number one commercial real estate market. The New York Times said that if people are looking for hope in this trying economy, it’s in Pittsburgh.

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