State’s jobless rate falls to 13.1% in May

There’s good news on the unemployment front in Pennsylvania – sort of.
The jobless rate for May was 13.1%, down three percentage points from April, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry’s employment situation report released Friday.
Data was collected the week of May 10-16, before many counties advanced to the yellow phase of reopening. That decline may be a hopeful indicator, as fewer Pennsylvanians would have returned to work at that time, compared with after their counties transitioned to yellow and green.
May’s pandemic-related rate, however, was 8.9 percentage points higher than the 4.2% figure of May 2019. Last month’s data are seasonally adjusted, providing the most valid month-to-month measurement.
The national rate for May, which was reported previously, was 13.3%, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points from April. Last month’s U.S. figure represented a 9.7-point jump from 3.7% a year earlier.
Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force – the estimated number of residents working or seeking work – increased by 23,000 from April. Employment rose by 211,000 and unemployment dropped by 188,000.
There were 198,300 more non-farm jobs than in April, a record jump for one month – raising the statewide total to 5,191,400. Employment increased in nine of the 11 industry supersectors, the largest occurring in construction – 77,400. That represented a recovery of two-thirds from March and April losses.
Over the year, however, total non-farm jobs in Pennsylvania were down 863,800, with declines in all supersectors. Leisure and hospitality absorbed the biggest loss – 300,100.