PA unemployment hits lowest rate since 2007
Although Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is still higher than the national one, it is now the lowest it has been in over a decade. (Photo by AP)
(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania’s latest unemployment numbers have dipped to an 11-year low.
The Department of Labor and Industry’s newly released June numbers mark the second month in a row the commonwealth has set a new post-recession jobs record.
The 4.3 percent rate is down two-tenths of a percent from May. All told, it has declined about half a percent this year.
It remains slightly higher than the four percent national figure, though.
That slowly-sinking number is accompanied by boost in jobs. They’re up by about 4,000 from May, which makes the 15th month in a row Pennsylvania has had a record high.
Manufacturing, leisure, and hospitality saw the most robust gains, while construction and professional, and business services shrank.
The number of Pennsylvanians working or looking for work–known as the civilian labor force–hasn’t changed significantly from last month.
Over the last year, though, the force has shrunk by about 60 thousand people because both employment and unemployment have gone down.
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