Local jobless rate rises to 5.9 percent

of its workforce.

At the same time, education and health services added 3,500 positions, and leisure and hospitality employers added 3,700 positions over the year.

A bright spot for economists could be that the regional labor force lost only 300 people, meaning people were not discouraged enough in August to give up looking for work. The regional labor force had lost a total of 4,900 people through June and July. While not good, that’s not substantial relative to the 1.2 million people currently in the region’s workforce.

The Pittsburgh-area August report is preliminary and will be adjusted in next month’s report when September’s data is released. Those numbers are scheduled for release on Oct. 30.