Apr 1, 2014 2 min read

Unemployment rates for Washington and Greene counties remained steady in February, and continued to stay below state and national figures.

Seasonally adjusted figures released by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry Tuesday showed Washington County’s jobless figure was 6.0 percent, down 0.1 of a point from January, and that Greene’s was 5.4 percent for both months.

Washington County was below the U.S. jobless rate for 12 of the past 13 months, the exception being this past November when both numbers were 7.0 percent. It has been under the Pennsylvania figure for at least 17 consecutive months.

Greene’s rate has been under both sets of numbers for at least the past 17 months.

The U.S. rate for February was 6.7 percent, and Pennsylvania 6.2.

The February figures for both counties were well below those from February 2013, when Washington had 7.3 percent unemployment (a 1.3 percent decline) and Greene 6.8 (a drop of 1.4 percent).

Washington is one of seven counties comprising the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a February rate of 5.8 percent, down 0.2 percent from January and well below 7.5 percent from a year earlier. That was the five consecutive monthly decline for the MSA, which also includes Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette and Westmoreland.

Butler County had the lowest jobless rate in the MSA (5.2 percent), while Fayette (7.5) had the highest. The Pittsburgh and Altoona MSAs tied for the fifth-lowest rate among Pennsylvania’s 14 MSAs.

Labor & Industry’s preliminary numbers, year over year, indicate some people from Washington and Greene ceased seeking jobs. Washington’s labor force of 109,000 in February was 300 below the previous year, and Greene’s force of 21,500 declined by 700 from February 2013.

The number employed, however, rose in January in both counties. Washington’s figure increased by 1,600 (from 107,400), and Greene’s by 100 (from 21,400 to 21,500).

The Pittsburgh MSA experienced a similar ebb and flow, with nonfarm jobs increasing by 5,800 from January to February to 1,158,300 – but dropping about 2,000 (-0.2 percent) over the year. Jobs statewide, on the contrary, increased 0.4 percent.

Over the month, the MSA lost 1,500 jobs in retail trade (seasonal layoffs); gained 600 in professional and technical services, a normal increase for February resulting in a record 78,200 positions; and, with the start of the academic spring semester, added 3,800 in educational services and 2,700 in local government.