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.
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