Pennsylvania's Employment Situation: December 2009

News provided by

Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry

Jan 21, 2010, 02:15 ET

HARRISBURG, Pa., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted civilian labor force -- the number of people working or looking for work -- decreased by 19,000 in December to 6,310,000. Resident employment dropped 37,000 in December, while unemployment was up 19,000. The Pennsylvania labor force was down 131,000 from December 2008.

Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent in December, up four-tenths of a percentage point from November. The state rate remained below the national unemployment rate, which remained at 10 percent in December.

Pennsylvania's rate has been at or below the national rate for 83 of the past 84 months. The statewide rate was up 2.5 percentage points from December 2008, while the U.S. rate was up 2.6 percentage points over the year.

Pennsylvania's seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs count fell by 8,100 jobs in December. Losses were almost equally split between goods producers and service providers. The professional and business services sector, up 4,700 due to a significant gain in temporary help services, showed the largest increase of any sector in December.

Pennsylvania jobs were down 150,300, or 2.6 percent, since December 2008. Nationally, jobs were down 3.1 percent over the same period.

Media contact: Troy Thompson, 717-787-7530

Editor's Note: A breakdown of Pennsylvania's employment statistics follows.

Current Labor Force Statistics Seasonally Adjusted (in thousands)
				Change from	Change from
	December	November	December	November 2009	December 2008
	2009	2009	2008	volume	percent	volume	percent
PA
Civilian Labor Force	6,310	6,329	6,441	-19	-0.3%	-131	-2.0%
Employment	5,751	5,788	6,029	-37	-0.6%	-278	-4.6%
Unemployment	560	541	412	19	3.5%	148	35.9%
Rate	8.9	8.5	6.4	0.4	----	2.5	----

U.S.
Civilian Labor Force	153,059	153,720	154,587	-661	-0.4%	-1,528	-1.0%
Employment	137,792	138,381	143,188	-589	-0.4%	-5,396	-3.8%
Unemployment	15,267	15,340	11,400	-73	-0.5%	3,867	33.9%
Rate	10.0	10.0	7.4	0.0	----	2.6	----

Pennsylvania Nonagricultural Wage and Salary Employment Seasonally Adjusted (in thousands)
				Change from	Change from
	December	November	December	November 2009	December 2008
	2009	2009	2008	volume	percent	volume	percent

Total Nonfarm Jobs	5,598.9	5,607.0	5,749.2	-8.1	-0.1%	-150.3	-2.6%

Goods Producing Industries	815.8	819.7	893.8	-3.9	-0.5%	-78.0	-8.7%
Mining & Logging	23.8	24.0	22.6	-0.2	-0.8%	1.2	5.3%
Construction	227.1	229.7	249.7	-2.6	-1.1%	-22.6	-9.1%
Manufacturing	564.9	566.0	621.5	-1.1	-0.2%	-56.6	-9.1%

Service Providing Industries	4,783.1	4,787.3	4,855.4	-4.2	-0.1%	-72.3	-1.5%
Trade, Transportation & Utilities	1,077.1	1,083.5	1,104.4	-6.4	-0.6%	-27.3	-2.5%
Information	96.4	95.4	101.7	1.0	1.0%	-5.3	-5.2%
Financial Activities	311.8	311.8	328.2	0.0	0.0%	-16.4	-5.0%
Professional & Business Services	671.8	667.1	700.3	4.7	0.7%	-28.5	-4.1%
Education & Health Services	1,132.8	1,133.5	1,112.3	-0.7	-0.1%	20.5	1.8%
Leisure & Hospitality	488.9	490.7	501.8	-1.8	-0.4%	-12.9	-2.6%
Other Services	250.7	249.8	254.0	0.9	0.4%	-3.3	-1.3%
Government	753.6	755.5	752.7	-1.9	-0.3%	0.9	0.1%

For a more detailed breakdown of seasonally adjusted jobs data at the sector level, please contact the Center for Workforce Information & Analysis at 1-877-4WF-DATA, or visit www.paworkstats.state.pa.us Note: January 2010 labor force and nonfarm jobs statistics will be released March 4, 2010.