Cleveburgh Labor Market

Yesterday, I WILL SHOUT YOUNGSTOWN commented "on how intertwined the Youngstown and Pittsburgh labor markets are." The labor market is bigger than Youngstown-Pittsburgh. We might include Erie, but there is no doubt that Cleveland-Akron is part of the workshed:

First Commonwealth Financial Corp. hired I. Robert Emmerich as executive vice president and chief credit officer for First Commonwealth Bank on Tuesday to oversee all aspects of bank credit.

He most recently held a similar job with National City Corp., where he worked 31 years.

Emmerich lists his location as Cleveland/Akron. Of course, Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank recently acquired Cleveland-based National City. And I first became aware of First Commonwealth when I read a story about the bank poaching financial talent in Charlotte, NC (specifically targeting natives of Southwestern PA who might consider returning). Naturally, First Commonwealth started mining Cleveland to fill open positions when National City started laying off.

I write "naturally" because there is a lot of worker churn between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Migration data bear that out. (more on those patterns in a later post) A company in Pittsburgh can more easily find labor in Cleveland than entice expatriates to boomerang. I make this remark as a practical approach to moving back to Greater Youngstown. Don't consider only job opportunities in the Steel Valley. Take advantage of labor shortages wherever they may be from Cleveland all the way to Morgantown, WV.