The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry released its situation report for September 2015, illustrating that the unemployment rate has dropped to 5.3 percent.

Good News

This was one-tenth of a point lower than that of August, and two-tenths of a point above the U.S. rate of 5.1 percent.

Last year at this time, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was at 5.3 percent, so it has varied only slightly and then reverted back to that. The national rate, in contrast, declined by eight-tenths of a point over the past year.

Pennsylvania’s civilian labor force dropped from 7,000 to 6,409,000 in September. Both resident employment and unemployment were down for the month.

Over the year, total nonfarm jobs in Pennsylvania are up 38,000 (+0.7%). Construction, leisure & hospitality, and trade, transportation & utilities had large contributions, with each adding at least 10,000 jobs over the past year.

Bad News

Total nonfarm jobs decreased 16,400 to 5,840,300 in September. Both public and private sector jobs also declined from August.

Education & health services and government had the largest declines, with the educational components of each super-sector accounting for most of the overall September job loss.

Leisure & hospitality showed the largest gain, with an addition of 8,000 jobs.