Pennsylvania Unemployment Rate at 8.8% Bests the Nation's Unemployment Rate
Still, 6,340,000 People Need Jobs
The Pittsburgh Business Times has picked up a story by Athena D. Merritt of the Philadelphia Business Journal titled "Pa. unemployment rate remains at 8.8% in October."
In further reading the article we find that Pennsylvania actually added 10,100 jobs which is the largest increase since July 2007 and yet the unemployment rate did not change at all. While that is positive it is disappointing that there are not increases yet with all of the federal debt that has been piling up.
The area of the Pennsylvania workforce that was responsible for the job increase was the educational and health services sector while the losses occurred in manufacturing. Neither factor was surprising.
It is a daunting number is when you move away from the protection of "percentages" as the reported factor.
While 27,000 fewer people are looking for work that still leaves 6,340,000 people who are still looking for work.
How do Pennsylvania's unemployment numbers compare with the nation's unemployment numbers?
The nation's unemployment rates run regionally between 9.2 percent and 11.8 percent.
The highest rate is in the pacific region and the lowest rate was in the East/Northeast at 9.0 to 9.5 percent. The highest rate average was in the west at 10.8 percent which makes sense when you have the Pacific leading the country.
All things considered then, Pennsylvania is doing well at its 8.8 percent status.
In my home state of Illinois we are running higher than the Midwest average. The Midwest average is 10 percent and we are up to 11 percent.
The reason for this though would have to be the economic impact on farming and the fact that we are heavy into manufacturing.
I will be glad to see an improvement in the employment rate of course. One thing that has me somewhat confused however is what I saw on Black Friday.
One would think in a state with a higher-than-normal unemployment rate shopping would be guarded.
People went nuts.
References:
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2009/11/16/daily44.html
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm
Personal Experience
Published by Gary Davis
Retired Insurance CEO. Trained in medicine and medicines. Trained in mental health particularly manic depression as well as most illnesses (from medical underwriting. Business owner, business, marketing,... View profile
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