WILKES-BARRE — Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points over the month to 7.3 percent in January.
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) Friday released its employment situation report for January 2021.
The U.S. rate fell four-tenths of a percentage point from December to 6.3 percent.
The commonwealth’s unemployment rate was 2.5 percentage points above its January 2020 level while the national rate was up 2.8 points over the year.
Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force — the estimated number of residents working or looking for work — decreased 15,000 over the month.
Pennsylvania’s total non-farm jobs were up 35,700 over the month to 5,638,100 in January, essentially reversing December’s drop of 35,400.
Jobs increased in four of the 11 industry super=sectors, with the largest volume gain in professional and business services (+12,100).
Additional information is available on the L&I website at — www.dli.pa.gov — or on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Notes: The above data are seasonally adjusted. Seasonally adjusted data provide the most valid month-to-month comparison.
Because the data included in each month’s press release — primarily civilian labor force and non-farm jobs data — are sample based, the data are subject to revisions.
Once each year, estimates are adjusted to new levels based on additional or revised information collected after the initial release of the data (called a benchmark).
Additionally, seasonal adjustment factors for historical labor force and non-farm jobs data are updated each year.
Revisions to the statewide labor force and non-farm jobs series through 2020 have been completed and are reflected in this January news release.
For a complete set of bench-marked data, visit www.workstats.dli.pa.gov.