Pa.’s jobless rate drops again; growth slow
Pennsylvania’s unemployment fell again for the ninth straight month, even as payroll and labor force growth remained relatively stagnant in April.
The state Department of Labor and Industry said Friday that unemployment fell three-tenths of a percentage point to 5.7 percent in April. That’s Pennsylvania’s lowest rate since September 2008 and is lower than the national rate of 6.3 percent last month.
Pennsylvania’s labor force — the number of people working or searching for work — rose last month by just 2,000 to remain more than 50,000 below the 2012 peak. The number of unemployed residents grew by 23,000 in April, while the number of unemployed fell by 22,000.
Total nonfarm jobs grew by almost 11,000 in April, recovering about the same amount of jobs shed the prior month.
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