Pittsburgh-area unemployment rate rises slightly to 4.1 percent

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the Pittsburgh region rose to 4.1 percent in June — a slight increase from 3.9 percent the month before, which was the lowest point on record in southwestern Pennsylvania since the 1960s, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

Unemployment in June hit the lowest point since March 2007, according to a monthly workforce report released Tuesday by the state labor department.

The June report continues to show the region’s tightening workforce amid a strengthening economy and a wave of retirements. Joblessness fell nearly 1 percent compared with June 2017 — driven primarily by people leaving the labor force, not people finding jobs.

The Pittsburgh region’s labor force shrunk by 11,200 over the year, which means there are 11,200 fewer people employed or looking for work. A declining labor force has long been a concern of economists, who tempered their outlook even as unemployment has fallen to record levels.

When joblessness fell to 3.9 percent in May, Kurt Rankin, a Pittsburgh-based economist for The PNC Financial Services Group, said the region’s rate “may be somewhat artificially low” due to the drop-outs.

The Pittsburgh region’s annual job growth in June picked up to 1.3 percent, up from 1 percent in May. Employers added 12,300 jobs since June 2017, according to seasonally adjusted figures. That matches statewide annual job growth of 1.3 percent in June.

Construction continued to outpace all large industries with 3 percent annual growth. (Those numbers are not seasonally adjusted for the gains and losses normally seen throughout the year, making it hard to compare monthly changes.) LABOR FORCE JOBS JOB GROWTH - Source: Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry