St. Louis Metro Area Employment Numbers

sc4mayor · PostNov 25, 2021#1762021-11-25T17:47+00:00

St. Louis area adds 3,900 jobs despite losses in leisure sector
https://www.stltoday.com/business/colum ... a536b.html

The October job gain, as seasonally adjusted by the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, follows a revised gain of 5,200 jobs in September, up from an early estimate of 3,300. The region's job recovery has proceeded in fits and starts this year: Gains in the spring were negligible and August showed a loss of 4,700 jobs.

ldai_phs · PostDec 02, 2021#1772021-12-02T17:41+00:00

October Employment & Labor Force:

LF and Employment down 5,000 from September.

Comparing the past 10 years of Octobers.... Labor Force and Employment are below October 2020.

quincunx · PostDec 23, 2021#1782021-12-23T14:33+00:00

Stltoday - Nicklaus: St. Louis is missing 60,000 jobs, and they aren’t coming back soon

https://www.stltoday.com/business/subsc ... 10e15.html

addxb2 · PostDec 23, 2021#1792021-12-23T16:07+00:00

Construction is soaring, 110% of what it was in January ‘20! Manufacturing and Trade/Transportation also back to 100%.

Industries of major concern:
- Hospitality
- Financial Activities
- Government
- Information

** Important to note, this graph doesn’t consider seasonality. A small share of Construction industry’s 110% is due to November typically being a better month for the industry. You can see that construction dipped below 100% Jan/Feb of 2021, showing seasonality. The industry is likely high enough now that it’ll survive well above 100% this upcoming Jan/Feb.

PostDec 23, 2021#1802021-12-23T16:35+00:00

Leisure & Hospitality:
I’m less concerned about this one. If the recovery stays on track, Spring and Summer of ‘22 should bring this back to 95%. A lot of hotel and tourism projects in the works.

Financial Activities:
I imagine this industry is benefiting from remote/WFH. Let’s hope Square/Block, Wells Fargo, and what’s left of Charles S. have big plans for the region. We need about 5k jobs to get us on track.

Information:
I don’t have much hope here. We need 1500-2000 jobs to return to pre-pandemic. Again, I think WFH will be a challenge here. Down 18.4% since 2011. This isn’t just an STL issue, KC is down 44% and Indy 25% in the same period.

Government:
Sigh. Again, not really sure what to expect here. Big federal $$$ mixed with some still dealing with budget shortfalls make this hard to predict. I don’t see how most governments are going to compete with higher wages and more flexibility in private industry. We need 12k jobs to return to pre-COVID.

dredger · PostDec 23, 2021#1812021-12-23T21:30+00:00

^ I wonder if government entities could get creative and maybe embrace what construction has done w apprentice programs, entry level programs where as the education and qualifications are lower but offers a more on the job training is more in line. I think there is this disconnect of government entities expecting well qualify or highly educated individual wanting to fill a low paying job or as addxb2 noted, how do counties and cities compete with private sector. To me, it might cities like St Louis teaming up with communities such as Forest Park CC and local colleges such Harris Stowe to offer an entry level job, benefit of continuing education (to minimize debt load) and build workforce in hour.

Can see a plus side for Restore Funds going towards student debt relieve in exchange for working x years with city. How my company offers reimbursement for continuing education if I want to pursue a MBA and or the same for our maritime employees who get assistance for continuing education to upgrade Coast Guard licenses or part of our union fringe packages or in house training if one of our crew members want to pursue NCCO crane certification. Have to build within is becoming more of a norm in private industry. Government entities must really have to think that way as well IMO

sc4mayor · PostDec 23, 2021#1822021-12-23T22:25+00:00

In my opinion St. Louisans should embrace the shrinkage in local government jobs and start consolidating. That’s one sector I’m not too concerned about…we have WAY more than our share of government jobs here.

dbInSouthCity · PostDec 23, 2021#1832021-12-23T23:07+00:00

Not sure local gov jobs are shrinking because of job elimination as much as unable to find people. City of STL alone has 1000 open positions right now, 17% of its workforce.

wabash · PostDec 24, 2021#1842021-12-24T02:02+00:00

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑
Dec 23, 2021
Not sure local gov jobs are shrinking because of job elimination as much as unable to find people. City of STL alone has 1000 open positions right now, 17% of its workforce.

I think that's why the gov jobs category shouldn't be of great concern (along with leisure/hospitality). A minor recession and/or slightly higher unemployment and less pay for greater job security and solid benefits will start to look good to more job seekers.

addxb2 · PostJan 05, 2022#1852022-01-05T20:19+00:00

Know what hasn’t been talked about much?

Metro East was almost entirely recovered from pandemic until fall 2020 COVID wave. More so than Metro West even.

I’m sure there are going to be many papers written on the economic impact of precautions taken by state governments… St. Louis may be the best case study.

Illinois

Missouri

wabash · PostJan 05, 2022#1862022-01-05T21:19+00:00

addxb2 wrote: ↑
Jan 05, 2022
Know what hasn’t been talked about much?

Metro East was almost entirely recovered from pandemic until fall 2020 COVID wave. More so than Metro West even.

I’m sure there are going to be many papers written on the economic impact of precautions taken by state governments… St. Louis may be the best case study.

A "recovery" that lasts for all of one data point may not garner much attention from academics or otherwise.

addxb2 · PostJan 05, 2022#1872022-01-05T21:30+00:00

wabash wrote:
addxb2 wrote: ↑
Jan 05, 2022
Know what hasn’t been talked about much?

Metro East was almost entirely recovered from pandemic until fall 2020 COVID wave. More so than Metro West even.

I’m sure there are going to be many papers written on the economic impact of precautions taken by state governments… St. Louis may be the best case study.
A "recovery" that lasts for all of one data point may not garner much attention from academics or otherwise.

If that’s true, then they won’t care about the original plummet either?

This also isn’t a single data point. For a reason Metro East recovery period lasted 3-4 months longer than Missouri, nearing 99% of recovery, then plummeted as COVID cases spiked.

symphonicpoet · PostJan 06, 2022#1882022-01-06T00:17+00:00

^I'm not sure how easily comparable the two are, given that the economic mixes are pretty different. Manufacturing and warehousing probably make a much larger percentage of the jobs in Metro East and tech, office, and service a smaller percentage. Both sides have eds and meds, but maybe not in the same proportions either. Things cluster, and the clusters mean the mix isn't terribly even. Maybe public policy has had an impact, but the sample here is small and the noise is high.

dredger · PostJan 06, 2022#1892022-01-06T00:58+00:00

^ I think the bigger issue for St. Louis region in that comparison is that Illinois is on the verge of going backwards in population and already has a net outflow in residents coming and going. Missouri undoudtly a slow growth state & more sprawl but worse for the region if a good chunk of your metro area is seeing residents leaving outright. The only positive spin on it is you might see some businesses and or residents entertain a move to Metro East or St. Louis from Chicago.

sc4mayor · PostJan 26, 2022#1902022-01-26T21:22+00:00

St. Louis gains 32,300 jobs in 2021, but recovery from pandemic is far from complete
https://www.stltoday.com/business/colum ... 3e654.html

The St. Louis economy ended 2021 on a strong note, gaining 10,700 jobs in December and 32,300 for the year. The gains, based on a preliminary seasonally adjusted estimate by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, represent the metro area's strongest annual job growth since 1994. However, they're not nearly enough to make up for the 81,300 jobs the area lost in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic devastated many sectors of the economy.

St. Louis' leisure and hospitality sector, which includes bars and restaurants, added 19,700 jobs last year, but it still employs 16,400 fewer people than it did before the pandemic. Estimates for specific industries are not seasonally adjusted. Other bright spots in 2021 included professional and business services firms, which gained 9,300 jobs, and the mining and construction industry, which added 5,700. Retailers, also hard hit by the pandemic, added 2,700 jobs last year.
.........
The BLS' estimates are preliminary and will be revised in March, and the revisions can sometimes be large. The BLS also reported Tuesday that unemployment in Missouri fell to 3.3% in December from 3.5% the month before. The state's jobless rate is comparable to pre-pandemic levels; it fell as low as 3.1% in 2019. Illinois' jobless rate fell to 5.3% from 5.7%. The metro St. Louis unemployment rate, which was 3.7% in November, will be updated next week.

addxb2 · PostJan 27, 2022#1912022-01-27T15:40+00:00

He doesn’t mention how much of the growth has happened just since August.

12/20 to 8/21: 6.8k jobs added
8/21 to 12/21: 25.5k jobs added

Percent Recovered
December 2020: 56.7%
June 2021: 60.9%
December 2021: 73.9%

quincunx · PostFeb 03, 2022#1922022-02-03T19:08+00:00

StlToday - Good news: St. Louis labor force stabilizes, unemployment keeps falling

https://www.stltoday.com/business/local ... 62f6b.html

addxb2 · PostMar 21, 2022#1932022-03-21T14:44+00:00

A spectacular annual revision from FRED. Compare to graph shared above on 1/27.

kipfilet · PostMar 21, 2022#1942022-03-21T15:09+00:00

Technically a BLS revision, FRED is just the messenger

ldai_phs · PostApr 26, 2022#1952022-04-26T17:58+00:00

Wall Street Journal published their annual job market rankings

St. Louis not surprisingly had a better ranking than New York or Chicago. surprised to see STL pass San Fran and Orlando (which I thought was a development hot spot).

WSJ

chriss752 · PostApr 26, 2022#1962022-04-26T18:19+00:00

ldai_phs wrote: ↑
Apr 26, 2022
Wall Street Journal published their annual job market rankings

St. Louis not surprisingly had a better ranking than New York or Chicago. surprised to see STL pass San Fran and Orlando (which I thought was a development hot spot).

WSJ

San Francisco is full of tech geeks who work out in Silicon Valley and push normal San Franciscans out of their homes. Orlando is a theme park city where retirees are moving to. Makes sense why these two don’t rank so hot on that list.

dredger · PostApr 26, 2022#1972022-04-26T18:54+00:00

^^ Love how Elkhart the RV capital of the world gets onto these lists. When economy booming it is the best spot in the world and when the economy tanks the pink slips are handed out by the fistfulls.

San Fran is not really odd but did took a big hit in itself and not a lot of workers really want to go back into the city. A fair share of WFH who left the city and stayed in the state. Salesforces decided not to go forward with next big lease which supposedly kill the next office building proposed next to Transbay Center and will see how long Twitter lasts in San Fran (Austin to Nashville to everyone else will get in line for Musk's attention). In meantime, Silicon Valley/San Jose is still seeing plenty of big investment and job growth from Google to Facebook to Apple.

addxb2 · PostAug 02, 2022#1982022-08-02T14:42+00:00

Wage growth compared to two peers.

StL: +$4.46 (+15.6%) | 3.2% unemployed
Indy: +$1.89 (+6.8%) | 2.3%
KC: +$0.11 (+0.4%) | 2.8%

The average employee in StL made $20.05 more than the average KC employee per week in June 2019.

Now it’s $177.96 more per week or $9,253.92yr.

St. Louis’s Average Hourly Earnings is closer to Denver’s than Kansas City’s, for the first time.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

RockChalkSTL · PostAug 02, 2022#1992022-08-02T15:05+00:00

Hell yes! Keep it up, St. Louis!

symphonicpoet · PostAug 02, 2022#2002022-08-02T16:27+00:00

^Sorry to see KC lagging, but it's very nice to see the wage growth here.

I wonder how much that has to do with economic sectors. Do they have similar graphs, but broken out by sector? I know Kansas City, for instance, still has a much stronger manufacturing base than we do. Ours used to be much stronger than average throughout the twentieth century, but became weaker than average in the 90s and 00s as some of the big auto plants closed and jobs shifted into healthcare, biosciences, and other fields and the place became generally more diversified.

St. Louis Metro Area Employment Numbers

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