Pa. non-farm jobs reach record-high for 13th straight month – LVB

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate in August remained well below the national average while total non-farm jobs hit a record high. 

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry on Friday released its preliminary employment situation report for August 2024. For the 11th straight month, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate in August remained unchanged at 3.4%, far less than the U.S. unemployment rate, which fell by a percentage point to 4.2%.  

The unemployment rate for Pennsylvania was one-tenth of a percentage point higher than its August 2023 level of 3.3%. The national rate was up four-tenths of a percentage point over the year. 

Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force, which comprises the estimated number of residents working or looking for work, fell by 22,000 in August to 6,581,000. Accounting for most of the labor force decline was resident employment, which was down 20,000. 

Pennsylvania’s total nonfarm jobs increased by 8,000 over the month to a record high of 6,200,000, the 13th straight record high for Pennsylvania’s jobs count. Jobs increased from July in seven of the 11 industry supersectors. The largest supersector movement was a gain of 4,500 jobs in education & health services, which reached a record high for the 15th consecutive month. 

Total nonfarm jobs are up 102,600 over the year with gains in nine of the 11 supersectors. The largest over-the-year gain is education & health services, which has an increase in jobs of 59,600.