The unemployment data in Pennsylvania has seen recent improvement. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) has released its preliminary employment situation report for June 2022.
According to L&I, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was down one-tenth of a percentage point over the month to 4.5 percent in June. The U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged over the month, remaining at 3.6 percent, where it has been since March. The commonwealth’s unemployment rate was 2.1 percentage points below its June 2021 level, and the national rate was down 2.3 percentage points over the year.
“The June jobs report shows Pennsylvania continuing down the road to recovery, marking the first time since September 2019 that we have been at 4.5 percent unemployment,” said L&I Secretary Jennifer Berrier. “The commonwealth and its residents are resilient, furthering job growth across various industries from trade, transportation, and utilities to professional and business services. Some industries are currently above their pre-pandemic level job totals, further contributing to Pennsylvania’s ongoing efforts to put the worst of the pandemic behind us.”
Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force – the estimated number of residents working or looking for work – increased by 7,000 over the month. The employment count rose 17,000 (to 6,159,000) while resident unemployment declined 10,000 (to 288,000).
Pennsylvania’s total nonfarm jobs were up 21,200 over the month to 5,950,900 in June. Jobs increased from May in seven of the 11 industry supersectors, with the largest volume gain in education & health services (+8,300). Over the year, total nonfarm jobs were up 211,300, with gains in 10 of the 11 supersectors. Leisure & hospitality had the largest 12-month gain, adding 64,000 jobs. Three supersectors – trade, transportation & utilities; information; and professional & business services – were above their pre-pandemic job levels in June 2022.
From April 2020 through June 2022, Pennsylvania has recovered approximately 87% of jobs lost in the first two months of the pandemic period.
Additional information is available on the L&I website at www.dli.pa.gov.
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