HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) has released its employment situation report for December of 2020.
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was down 0.1 percentage points over the month to 6.7 percent in December, the eighth consecutive monthly decline.
The U.S. rate remained unchanged from November at 6.7 percent. The commonwealth’s unemployment rate was 2.1 percentage points above its December of 2019 level while the national rate was up 3.1 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 due to declines in both employment and unemployment.
Pennsylvania’s total nonfarm jobs were down 37,600 over the month to 5,606,000 in December. The December decline followed seven consecutive monthly gains.
Jobs decreased in 7 of the 11 industry supersectors, but the largest contributor was leisure & hospitality (-36,900). The largest gain was in trade, transportation and utilities, up 18,700 jobs due to increases in all component sectors – wholesale trade, retail trade and transportation, warehousing & utilities.
Additional information is available on the L&I website at www.dli.pa.gov or by following on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Note: The above data are seasonally adjusted. Seasonally adjusted data provide the most valid month-to-month comparison.
