The average worker in Allegheny County is getting older, University of Pittsburgh researchers reported Wednesday. They estimate the number of workers in the county who are at least 65 years old increased by 54% in the last decade.
The increase was to be expected: Southwestern Pennsylvania suffered decades of population loss following the steel industry’s collapse, and today Allegheny County ranks as the second-oldest among the 40 largest counties in the U.S., according to the new report.
But the study’s authors said the region still must plan for a range of supports to ensure the well-being of aging residents, especially racial minorities and those with low income or disabilities. Those groups report experiencing poverty and poor health at higher rates than the rest of the population and are less likely to feel safe where they live, the new research shows.
About one in every five Allegheny County residents is 65 years or older. Only Palm Beach, Fla., has a higher proportion of older residents, but Chris Briem, a regional economist at Pitt’s Center for Social and Urban Research, noted the reason is different.
“Allegheny County's concentration of older adults is almost entirely the result of what we call aging in place,” Briem said during a virtual briefing Wednesday. “And that makes for a very different set of issues locally compared to Palm Beach or other retirement communities.”
Older residents account for a growing share of employment in Allegheny County, and their impending exit from the labor force will likely exacerbate hiring challenges at local businesses. In the meantime, the Pitt researchers said, greater support for caregivers and people with disabilities could help people to continue working longer.
Between 2011 and 2021, Allegheny County gained 16,000 wage and salary workers aged 65 or older and 8,500 between the ages of 55 and 64, according to the study. For 35- to 54-year-olds, employment dropped by 27,000 during the same period.
“Really, we've been challenged by … pretty flat population growth overall, pretty flat workforce growth,” Briem said. “In fact, the older workers in the county have been the only recent source of growth.”
Briem says a spike in retirement during COVID-19 wasn’t large enough to offset the longer-term demographic shift in the Pittsburgh region. Plus, the study noted that in Allegheny County, labor force participation rose most for people between the ages of 65 and 75 between 2011 and 2021. In the last 20 years, labor force participation for Allegheny County residents aged 65 to 69 climbed from 26% to 36%, according to Wednesday’s report.
“We have more older folks. They are working longer — those numbers are going up and up and up,” Briem said.
He noted, however, that within the city of Pittsburgh, the average resident has become younger in recent decades. He attributed the turnaround to a greater concentration of students and immigrants inside city limits.
Wednesday’s report included a comprehensive set of findings on aging, disability and family caregiving in Allegheny County. The Center for Social and Urban Research at Pitt prepared the study in collaboration with the university’s Health Policy Institute. The Henry L. Hillman Foundation funded the research, which included a survey of 1,300 local adults aged 55 or older.
