Unemployment rates rise to new highs in region
Area jobless rates continued their rise during May, thanks in part to jobseekers entering the labor force, but being unable to find employment. Overall, the Pittsburgh region has lost more than 30,000 jobs since May 2008, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industry, said. Fayette County’s unemployment rate rose from 8.8 percent in April to 9.4 percent in May. Fayette County’s jobless rate in May 2008 was 6.3 percent.
Greene County’s rates were 7.9 percent in May, 7.4 percent in April and 5.7 percent in May 2008.
Washington County’s jobless rates were 8.1 percent in May, 7.6 percent in April and 5 percent in May 2008.
In terms of ranking, Fayette County’s jobless rate was 45th highest among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. Greene and Washington counties ranked 20th and 21st highest respectively in May.
The highest unemployment rate in the state in May was 18.6 percent in Cameron County and the lowest was 5.9 percent in Centre County.
Lauren Nimal, Pennsylvania Department of Labor Center for Workforce Information and Analysis industry and business analyst, said that in May, unemployment in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA) rose to 7.5 percent, up .2 percent from April. Counties in the PMSA are Fayette, Washington, Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver and Butler.
“This was the area’s highest rate since July 1992,” she reported. The rate was below those of Pennsylvania (8.2 percent) and the United States (9.4 percent) for the 16th consecutive month.
Nimal said the civilian labor force rose in the PMSA to 1,229,700 due to identical increases in the employment and unemployment counts. The PMSA unemployment rate was 2.6 percentage points above the May 2008 rate.
The PMSA, Nimal reported, also had the fifth lowest unemployment rate among Pennsylvania’s 14 metropolitan statistical areas. Jobless rates among the counties in the PMSA ranged from 6.8 percent in Allegheny County to 10.1 percent in Armstrong County. Nimal said this was the first time since August 1994 that any county in the PMSA has had an unemployment rate of more than 10 percent.
“The seasonally adjusted jobs count in the PMSA fell 2,500 from April to 1,121,400. This was the lowest level since March 1999. The area has lost 30,600 jobs since May 2008. Down 2.7 percent over the year, the PMSA had the smallest percentage jobs drop of any seasonally adjusted area in Pennsylvania.
In specific areas, Nimal reported that PMSA good producers experienced the smallest May increase on record (current data was set in 1990), up 500 to 149,600 jobs.
Construction was the only supersector to add jobs, although its gain of 1,400 was a smaller May increase than typical, she said. “Manufacturers have lost 9,700 jobs over the past 10 months of consecutive decreases,” Nimal said.
Service-providing companies added 5,200 jobs from April. Leisure and hospitality added the most jobs of any supersector, up 6,000 to 106,300. Trade, transportation and utilities gained 2,000 jobs with most of the increase from retail trade. Education and health services declined 2,600 due to colleges and universities wrapping up the spring semester. Health care and social assistance rose to a record high of 182,100 jobs.
Goods producers and service providers both experienced record over-the-year drops in May, Nimal said. Manufacturers were the hardest hit, down 9,200 or 9.3 percent since last May. Mining and logging and education and health services were the only supersectors to post gains from May 2008, she added.