WASHINGTON: Northeastern Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate went up slightly in October. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area’s (MSA’s) seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.6 percent. The rate was 6.5 percent in September after rising to a 2016 high of 6.6 percent in August. It was 6.3 percent in July, 6.1 percent in June, 6.3 in May and 6.4 in April. The jobless rate rose 1.3 percentage point from January to April.
The state rate increased one-tenth of a percentage point to 5.8 percent in October, while the national unemployment rate declined one-tenth of a point to 4.9 percent. The MSA’s rate was the 14th-lowest among Pennsylvania’s 18 MSAs, ranging from 4.3 percent in the Gettysburg MSA to 7.2 percent in the Johnstown MSA. The local MSA’s seasonally adjusted total non-farm jobs decreased 1,400 to 258,200 in October. Over the year, jobs in the MSA were down 700, or 0.3 percent, while jobs in the state overall rose 0.7 percent.
Steven Zellers, industry and business analyst at the Center for Workforce Information and Analysis, state Department of Labor and Industry, said the rate went up because while there were fewer jobs, there were fewer people looking for a job. “There was no actual increase to unemployment,” Zellers said. “Nine hundred jobs disappeared. There were 900 less unemployed residents, but 900 people left the labor force.” October is a transition month, Zellers said.
Educational services, both public and private, were up over the month as schools continued staffing for the new school year. Education was up 500 jobs for the month but is flat for the year, Zellers said. “Education is up a little from school going back into session,” he said. “The rest of the summer jobs are gone, and the seasonal winter jobs didn’t ramp up yet because the winter has been mild so far. That category, leisure and hospitality, is down 300 for the month but up 600 for the year.”
Zellers said health care and social assistance is showing “a typical trend.” The category saw marginal growth for the month but 1.9 percent, or 800 new jobs, over the past year. Two other job categories — mining, logging and construction, and transportation, warehousing and utilities — are flat for the month. Both are down for the year — the first by 300 jobs, the second by 600 jobs. Zellers noted the transportation, warehousing and utilities employment situation could change rapidly because the MSA has a lot of warehousing. “The holiday ramp-up is coming,” he said.
Zellers said in the city unemployment rates — which have traditionally run higher than the regional or state rates — Hazleton is down four-tenths of a point, from 9.9 percent in September to 9.5 percent in October, while Pottsville went in the opposite direction, going from 6.1 percent in September to 6.8 percent in October.
Ashley Yanchunas, another industry and business analyst at the Center for Workforce Information and Analysis, said the drop for Hazleton is not unusual. Last year, the unemployment rate in the city dropped from 8.5 percent in September to 8.2 percent in October. This year, the decrease was due to a drop in the number of people employed,with a corresponding drop in the labor force, she said. The unemployment rate in Carbon County, at 6.5 percent, is down two-tenths of a point from September. Luzerne and Schuylkill counties each are up one-tenth — Luzerne to 6.8 percent and Schuylkill to 6.7 percent.
