Butler County’s jobless rate remains at 4.2%
Butler County's jobless rate was unchanged from June to July, remaining the lowest in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area at 4.2%, while the seasonally adjusted rate fell by a half-percentage point to 3.6%
Data released Tuesday, Aug. 30, by the state Department of Labor & Industry showed Butler County’s jobless rate increased by 0.7% from May to June, but has since remained constant.
The county’s civilian labor force increased from 99,300 to 99,900 from June to July.
All counties in the Pittsburgh area saw either no change to their jobless rate in July or saw a 0.1% increase or decrease.
Pennsylvania’s overall jobless rate stood at 4.7% for July, which mirrored the Pittsburgh region total jobless rate.
The East Stroudsburg Metropolitan Statistical Area reported the highest jobless rate in the state at 6.1%, while the Gettysburg Metropolitan Statistical Area came in with the lowest at 3.5%.
Armstrong, Allegheny, Beaver, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland are the other counties in the Pittsburgh region.
Fayette County retains the highest jobless rate in the Pittsburgh area at 6.5%.
Allegheny County boasts the largest civilian labor force in the Pittsburgh area with 639,200, but does not include the city of Pittsburgh, which had 154,600 workers in its civilian workforce as of July.
Pittsburgh and Allegheny County each have a 4.4% jobless rate.
Jobs rose during July in six of the 11 "super-sectors" — the broadest groups of industries.
Within the Pittsburgh area, leisure and hospitality saw the largest super-sector increase of 3,800 jobs from June to July.
Four super-sectors fell during July, which includes trade transportation and utilities (-3,000) and government (-6,100).
Over the past year, leisure and hospitality saw the largest increase out of the 11 super-sectors, adding 19,200 jobs.
Notably, manufacturing saw a decrease of 1,600 jobs over the past month, while educational services lost 500 jobs.
