Since its decline from a 20th-century industrial powerhouse, Pittsburgh has transformed into a city whose economy is now driven by universities, hospitals and research. In 2024, more than 195,000 people in the Pittsburgh area worked in education and health care, compared with fewer than 7,500 in the once-thriving steel industry. Local institutions have also fueled innovations, jobs and new industries such as robotics. The city is emblematic of the “eds and meds” model that has been instrumental in reorienting local economies amid the decline of manufacturing.
President Donald Trump’s war on “woke” universities now threatens this model as he pushes to cut research funding and shift investments toward industries like manufacturing in an effort to re-industrialize America. Yet as Shawn Donnan writes, today’s universities are “where the country’s next industrial transformation is being created.” Today on Weekend: Trump Is Targeting an Economic Revival Story