Pittsburgh area's jobless rate holds steady, workforce bumps up

By Kris B. Mamula / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh’s area economy kept humming along in September, with a low unemployment rate that was unchanged from a year ago, while the labor force inched up, according to figures released Tuesday by the state Department of Labor & Industry.

The Pennsylvania unemployment rate was unchanged in September over the previous year at 3.4%, matching the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.4% in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area for the same month. During the past 12 months, the national jobless rate declined three-tenths of a percentage point.

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The Pittsburgh area’s labor force rose by 8,700 jobs between September 2023 and 2024 to 1.18 million for less than a percentage point rise for the year, according to civilian labor force figures released by Labor & Industry. The total number of non-seasonally adjusted jobs in the seven-county region rose by 18,500 between August and September, with the service-providing sector the big gainer with 17,300 new jobs.

Butler County led the Pittsburgh region in low unemployment at just 3%, followed by Allegheny and Washington counties, 3.3%; Westmoreland, 3.4%; Beaver, 3.7%; Armstrong, 4.1%; and Fayette, 4.5%.