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Pennsylvania unemployment down in August
Stacy Wescoe//September 17, 2021
There was a slight decline in unemployment in Pennsylvania for the month of August.
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry has reported the unemployment rate was down one-tenth to 6.5%.
Comparatively, the U.S. rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point from July’s level to 5.2%.
The state’s unemployment rate was down 3.8 percentage points below August of 2020 and the national rate was down 3.2 points over the year.
Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force, which is the estimated number of residents working or looking for work, decreased 7,000 from July in large part because of a drop of 6,000 in unemployment which fell for the sixth consecutive month.
Pennsylvania’s total nonfarm jobs were up 5,100 over the month to 5,743,000 in August.
Jobs increased in 8 of the 11 industry supersectors. The largest movement was a drop of 8,800 leisure & hospitality jobs, while the largest gain was tied between professional & business services and other services, each up 3,200.
Over the year, total nonfarm jobs were up 191,100 with gains in 10 of the 11 supersectors. Leisure & hospitality had the largest 12-month gain, adding back 66,700 jobs.
All supersectors remained below their February 2020, pre-pandemic job levels as of August 2021.
