Third and State

This morning the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry released data for September on employment and unemployment by metropolitan area in Pennsylvania.

As unemployment rates have been moving up over the last several months in most of the Commonwealth, much of the coverage this morning focuses on the fact that unemployment rates in September finally fell in many areas.

Of course, unemployment remains very high. In addition, as the table below illustrates, employment growth as measured in the survey of establishments (i.e., businesses), while positive for most metropolitan areas over the last year, has been negative in the last five months in 11 of 16 areas (employment declines are in red). (While the survey of households is used to measure unemployment rates, the survey of establishments is considered the more reliable indicator of job or employment growth. Over long periods, the two surveys almost always show the same trends.)

Unless job growth improves significantly over the next several months, September's decline in the unemployment rate will be a brief interruption of the continued increases in unemployment.

• The Patriot-News — Midstate unemployment declines, but 20,900 are jobless
• Ann Belser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — Region's jobless rate falls a little
• Walt Frank, The Altoona Mirror — Jobless rate down in all area counties Region rebounds from last month’s high unemployment
• Shannon Simcox, Reading Eagle — Unemployment falls in September Both Reading and Berks show progress in jobless area
• James Haggerty, Scranton Times-Tribune — Unemployment drops, but region still has state's highest jobless rate