The Department of Labor and Industry Friday announced Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was unchanged from December at 4.8 percent. The Commonwealth’s rate remained above the United States’ rate of 4.1 percent, also unchanged in January.
Over the year, the Pennsylvania unemployment rate declined by four-tenths of a percentage point.
Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force was down 4,000 over the month to 6,414,000 following four months without any change. The decline was due to a drop of 5,000 in employment. Unemployment remained steady at 310,000.
Over the year, employment and unemployment were down by 4,000 and 28,000, respectively.
Pennsylvania’s nonfarm jobs count decreased 6,300 from a record high in December to 5,987,300 in January. This was the first decline following nine consecutive monthly gains. Jobs were down in six of the 11 supersectors.
The largest supersector movement over the month was a decline of 4,600 in education & health services while the largest gain was in leisure & hospitality, up 2,800 to a record high.
Over the year, total nonfarm jobs in Pennsylvania were up 1.1 percent. Eight supersectors in the Commonwealth added jobs from January 2017.
The largest volume increase over the past 12 months was in education & health services, up 31,200 due entirely to gains in health care & social assistance. The largest drop over the year was government, down 2,700.
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