Resident Labor Force in Greater Philadelphia

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington (PHL) and Trenton-Ewing (TRE) Metropolitan Statistical Areas Labor Force as of December 2012:

• Civilian labor force 3.16 million
• Unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) 8.3% (U.S. rate was 8.5%)

PHL and TRE unemployment rate has been < U.S. since at least as far back as January 2001. Over last five years PHL & TRE unemployment rate has averaged 0.6 percentage points below the U.S. rate.

Here are a dozen things to know about Greater Philadelphia’s extraordinary workforce:

• 3.16 million workers gave Greater Philadelphia the 5th largest labor force among
  the nation’s largest metro areas as of February 2012.
• Over 1.15 million workers worked in Knowledge Occupations as defined by the
  Economic Development Administration (EDA), comprising 40.6% of total employment.
  151,400 workers were employed in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
  (STEM), 5.4% of the area’s total employment.
• 147,700 workers were employed in Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
• $130,900 Gross Regional Product per worker demonstrated Greater Philadelphia’s
  high level of productivity versus the $114,900 national average in 2011.
• 85,700 certificates and degrees were awarded by colleges and universities in the
  region during the 2009/10 academic year, 79% of which were bachelor’s or higher.
• Over 43,700 of the area’s people were employed in Arts and Culture occupations,
  enhancing Greater Philadelphia’s enviable quality of life.
• 34% of Greater Philadelphia’s jobs required at least some post-secondary education
  for an entry level position, 6th highest among the 15 largest MSAs.
• 33.7% of all jobs in Greater Philadelphia were in Management, Business, Financial and
  Professional and related occupations – fields that employed over 956,000 workers.
• 33.1% of the area’s work force was employed in what Richard Florida has termed
  “creative class” occupations.
• 32.9% of area residents 25 years and older had a bachelor’s degree or higher, fully 5 percentage points above the U.S. average.
• 13.1% of area residents had advanced degrees, compared to the U.S. share of 10.3%. 

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Bureau of the Census. State and local unemployment rates. Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Third District Data; Federal Reserve Bank seasonally adjusts the BLS data. IHS Global Insight. Metropolitan Statistical Area Forecasts.