Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Labor Sandi Vito cast Thursday’s report that statewide unemployment rose last month as a good news/bad news sort of scenario.
The bad news is that the unemployment rate rose slightly from February’s 8.9 percent to 9 percent in March. The good news is that the increase was driven in part by people who have stepped away from the workforce becoming more optimistic about employment opportunities.
In a speech before the state AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh, Ms. Vito said the report showed the workforce grew by 6,000 people who re-entered the job market after taking a break during the deepest part of the recession.