More people were working in Pennsylvania in October than had been since August of 2008.
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry released its seasonally adjusted employment situation report for October 2014 on Friday, pegging total nonfarm jobs in the commonwealth at 5,802,300. That is up 12,600 jobs since September.
“We had a tremendous amount of growth,” said Sara Goulet, state Department of Labor and Industry spokeswoman.
The state’s unemployment rate declined by three-tenths of a percentage point from September to 5.4 percent. That number is below the national 5.8 percent rate and lower than it has been in Pennsylvania for six years. Year-over year, the unemployment rate was down by 1.7 percent.
Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force increased by 15,000 individuals in October. Resident employment was up 32,000 while unemployment was down 15,000.
The department reports jobs in trade, transportation and utilities lead the way with an increase of 5,500 jobs while government jobs were down by 2,600.
“Pennsylvania has been on a very steady 5-year increase in jobs,” Goulet said. “We are not back to our record pre-recession high, we’re about 22,000 jobs away from that but we are well on our way to reaching that.”
Over the year, total nonfarm jobs in Pennsylvania were up 48,200 (+0.8 percent).
