For the ninth consecutive month, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate for June remained unchanged at 3.4 percent, according to a preliminary employment situation report released July 19 by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.
“This is the longest period of steady wage growth and the strongest job market for workers since the 1960s and 1970s,” Keystone Research Center Executive Director Stephen Herzenberg said on Friday.
Comparatively, the U.S. unemployment rate rose by one-tenth of a percentage point from its May rate to 4.1 percent.
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was two-tenths of a percentage point above its record low June 2023 level of 3.2 percent, while the national rate was up one-half of a percentage point over the year, according to the state’s Labor & Industry (L&I) Department.
At the same time, Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force — the estimated number of residents working or looking for work — declined in June by 2,000 to 6,603,000 due to a drop in resident employment, which also was down from a record high in May. Resident unemployment was unchanged over the month, the department reported.
The total number of non-farm jobs in the state was up 15,600 in June compared to the prior month, rising to a record high of 6,183,900, and setting another record high for the state’s jobs count.
“Pennsylvania added 15,600 jobs in June, the eleventh monthly increase in a row,” said Claire Kovach, a senior research analyst at the Keystone Research Center. “Together with good news on inflation for June, today’s job report continued a long string of good news on the economy.”
Jobs increased from May in seven of the 11 industry supersectors, with the largest movement over the month being a gain of 8,300 jobs in education and health services, the L&I Department said, adding that financial activities and leisure and hospitality both also reached record high levels in June.
The L&I Department cautioned that the June data is preliminary and subject to revision.