This morning’s Employment Situation Summary showed that the U.S. labor market remained unusually strong in November. While the headline of 155,000 jobs was off from what economists were expecting, the overall data on the employment situation was positive. Wages grew at a 3.1 percent rate, although workers saw a slight decrease in hours. Workforce participation and total unemployed was even with October’s data. Unemployment was steady at 3.7 percent. Taken in concert with the November Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, the number of open positions still exceeds those looking for work by one million.

Forecasts of job growth have been off by about 40,000 jobs each of the last four months – both overestimating and underestimating every other month – which highlights the difficulty of predicting monthly changes in the economy, especially late in the business cycle. Other indicators show the economy starting to slow, and the lack of available workers should bring the average monthly growth in jobs down to between 120,000 and 140,000 in 2019. In Pittsburgh, there are fewer signals of a slowing economy. The race to replace retiring Baby Boomers will hold back the total number of employed persons in Pittsburgh but the sources of job growth remain robust.

Construction projects continue to advance in anticipation of continued growth. Developers continue to be optimistic about the office market. Earlier this week Oxford Development brought forward its plans for the first building in 3 Crossings 2.0, the $13.5 million, 110,000 square foot Stacks at 3 Crossings. Rycon Construction is the general contractor. Innovation Center Associates broke ground on a 90,000 square foot Class A spec office at Innovation Ridge, which will be designed and built by Al. Neyer.

Massaro Corp. was selected for the $11.8 million Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank project. Allegheny Construction Group has started on the $7 million first phase of the grower/processor facility for Penn Health Group in Lemont Furnace. Sunrise Assisted Living has put a $7 million expansion of its McCandless facility out to bid. According to the PBX the bidders are Burchick, PJ Dick, Rycon, Sota and Sun Coast.