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County’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate rises to 4%

The Pittsburgh region’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose slightly to 4.1% from January to February, while Butler County’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate increased as well, from 3.7% to 4% during that time.

Despite the rise, Butler County retained the lowest rate of the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, according to the most recent data released on Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

Pennsylvania’s seasonally adjusted rate rose 0.1% in February to 4.4%, while the United States rate rose slightly as well to 3.6%.

Butler County’s seasonally adjusted labor force went almost unchanged from January to February as it lost 100 workers, rounding out at 98,400.

Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland are among the other counties in the Pittsburgh region.

All counties saw an increase to their jobless rate due to small losses within their labor force, except for Allegheny County which stayed the same at 630,200 workers.

Armstrong County saw the largest increase to its seasonally adjusted jobless rate, from 4.6% to 5% in February.

In surrounding counties not classified as part of the Pittsburgh region, Clarion and Venango counties came in with a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.4%, Mercer County at 4.8% and Lawrence County at 5.6%.

The Gettysburg Metropolitan Statistical Area boasted the lowest seasonally adjusted rate in the state at 2.9%, while East Stroudsburg had the highest at 5.4%.

Seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs in the Pittsburgh region increased by 2,900 over the month to 1,165,900 in February.

Jobs increased from January to February in eight of the 11 “supersectors” in the Pittsburgh area — the broadest groups of industries.

This was led by an increase in the education and health services sector, which gained 3,000 jobs.

The second biggest increase came out of the government sector, with a gain of 2,600 jobs.

The largest supersector decline from over the past month was a seasonal loss of 1,200 jobs in trade, transportation and utilities.

Over the year, jobs were up in 10 of the 11 supersectors. Professional and business services had the largest increase with a gain of 6,700 jobs.

The only decline was in construction which was down 3,100 since February 2022.

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