Job Boom In Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh may accelerate through this downturn faster than most people expect. The region has more than a few big bets on the table and almost all of them look to be good ones. The latest from the nuclear industry:

Westinghouse Electric Co. CEO Aris Candris said today that the nuclear power company's pace of hiring — about 700 people a year worldwide — is filling up its new headquarters in Cranberry and means Westinghouse will lease and build out in the northern suburb.

"We'll be growing, and growing a lot," CEO Aris Candris told nearly 200 people attending a breakfast meeting of the Pittsburgh Technology Council at Downtown's River Club. ...

... Candris said Westinghouse initially projected the Cranberry quarters would eventually house about 3,200. But in little more than a year after opening, the facility will be almost full, as 300 to 400 of the new-hires this year are expected to be based in Cranberry.

"We'll be leasing space all over the place and have construction plans at the existing campus, too," said Candris. He declined to be specific but said the expansion would take place in the Cranberry area.

In other words, initial job creation numbers look to be quite conservative. As I indicated in a post yesterday, the main concern is finding enough talent to meet the growing worldwide demand for nuclear technology. I'd guess that much of the new workforce will come from outside of the region.

That local talent supply can't keep up with demand is mostly good news. Pittsburgh needs a few good paths of in-migration. Once again, I remind Youngstown of the activity going on right next door.