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September 17, 1998

Report details Pitt's economic impact

Pitt supports nearly 25,000 jobs, generating $647 million in personal income for area residents and $840 million in revenue for the region's businesses, according to a new Pitt-produced report detailing the University's impact on the regional economy.

Among the report's findings:

* Of the 24,650 jobs supported by Pitt, 8,840 are directly employed by the University, 14,385 are jobs created by Pitt-related spending, and 1,425 are jobs that exist to provide services to the University community.

* Spending by Pitt employees, students and visitors, along with Pitt's non-wage spending of $200 million, generates $840 million in local business.

* County, municipal governments and public school districts in Allegheny County receive annual University-related tax revenues of more than $66 million.

* Pitt annually imports $260 million in research funding into southwestern Pennsylvania from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and private foundations, among other sources.

* Of the 59 regional biomedical companies in southwestern Pennsylvania, 25 have connections to Pitt research and development activities.

Pitt's Office of Institutional Research and the University Center for Social and Urban Research generated the report's findings, based on a 1971 methodology developed for the American Council on Education called "Estimating the Impact of a College or University on the Local Economy." Pitt is distributing 3,000 copies of the report to government officials, legislators, and corporate and foundation leaders to help plead the University's case for funding, said spokesperson Ken Service. Members of the Pitt community who want a copy should call University Relations.

Pitt produced the report to document its contributions, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said. "Through its main enterprises of teaching, research and service, the University contributes to our home communities in a number of vital ways, generating billions of dollars in economic activity as well as developing and marketing industrial, environmental and medical technologies that are transforming the economic landscape of Pennsylvania in many positive ways."

Filed under: Feature,Volume 31 Issue 2

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