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April Unemployment Update: PA Rate Drops

April 2013 unemployment
Pa. unemployment dipped in April, but still is higher than the national rate. Graph via Google, via the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Gov. Tom Corbett has staked his re-election on job creation. Here’s a look at the latest employment numbers in Pennsylvania.

Democrats loudly noted the fact that Pa. fell from 7th to 49th in the nation according to year-over-year non-farm job creation numbers from March. There were significant problems with using that metric as a criterion for Corbett’s record, but it is a dynamite campaign talking point.

In April, PA fared better in that category, moving from 49th to 41st. This ranking comes from a comparison of the current month’s job creation rate to the same month’s rate in the previous year.

It’s positive movement, but it also lends credence to the charge by Corbett’s critics that Pa. jobs numbers have plateaued.

April numbers show only an increase of 0.66% from last year, when PA was 42nd. When checking the 12 month moving average as compared to this time last year the results are still similar. PA is at 46th by that measure, with an increase of only 0.92%.

The unemployment numbers showed slight improvement, too. Pa.’s unemployment rate was 7.6% in April. This is better than last month’s rate of 7.9% and 7.8% in April of 2012, but remains higher than the national average of 7.5%.

2 Responses

  1. Thank you for you’re economic analysis from your politically biased position. what else do you not know anything about, David?

  2. When Corbett took office, PA was more than a point better than the national average. The national economy has improved, but PA is now worse than the national average.

    Corbett has been unable to capitalize on the national improvement, and probably has worked against the current.

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