Pennsylvania’s June Unemployment Rate Was Down 0.4% To 13%

On July 17, the Department of Labor & Industry Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was down four-tenths of a percentage point over the month to 13.0 percent in June. 

            The national rate fell 2.2 percentage points from May’s level to 11.1 percent. The Commonwealth’s unemployment rate increased by 8.7 percentage points from June 2019 while the national rate was up 7.4 points over the year.

            Data collected for the June employment situation report was for the reference week of June 7 to 13.

            Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force – the estimated number of residents working or looking for work – was down 175,000 over the month due to declines in both resident employment and unemployment.

            Pennsylvania’s total nonfarm jobs were up 231,500 over the month, the largest single-month increase on record, to 5,433,000 in June. Jobs increased in 8 of the 11 industry supersectors. The largest gain was in leisure & hospitality which added 76,100 jobs from May.

            Over the past two months, Pennsylvania has recovered nearly 40 percent of the total nonfarm jobs lost in March and April.

            Over the year, total nonfarm jobs in Pennsylvania were down 620,300 with declines in each of the 11 supersectors. The largest 12-month change among supersectors was a decline of 215,500 jobs in leisure & hospitality.

For the week July 5 -11, there were 44,086 unemployment claims, up 712 from last week.   The highest weekly total came March 22 to 28-- 374,056.  Read more here.