News

June 29, 2010

Unemployment rate rising

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre region is at the bottom of the list of 14 major Pennsylvania labor markets.

By Jerry Lynott jlynott@timesleader.com
Business Writer
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The region’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 10.3 percent in May, stretching the local streak of monthly increases to four and inching close to a level reached 18 years ago.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre region had company at the bottom of the list of 14 major Pennsylvania labor markets. Johnstown matched the region’s seasonally adjusted rate.

Ten days ago, the state reported a rise in its monthly rate to 9.1 percent from 9.0 percent in April. The national average dropped two tenths of a percentage point to 9.7 percent.

Locally, the rate climbed three tenths of a percentage point as the resident labor force, made up of people who live in Lackawanna, Luzerne and Wyoming counties but might work outside the region, shrunk and the number of jobs fell.

The pattern could be repeated over the next several months as the effects of the recession linger, said Anthony Liuzzo, director of the master of business administration program at Wilkes University.

“This is a really slow recovery and really painful recovery,” Liuzzo said.

Employers fear a repeat of the economic slowdown that resulted in the loss of millions of jobs and are reluctant to hire to the point where it reduces the unemployment rate, he added.

“This was such a major hit,” Liuzzo said. “It really spooked businesses quite a bit.”

Last month, the region posted a gain of 600 jobs, according to data from the state Department of Labor and Industry. The seasonally adjusted non-farm jobs in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market rose to 254,000.

By comparison, the region had 600 fewer jobs than in May 2009. The adjusted figures remove cyclical influences from the data to provide a more accurate picture of employment.

Liuzzo advocated patience while the national and regional employment situations get better.

For the past few months the seasonally adjusted unemployment has been above 10 percent in Luzerne County. It stood at 10.6 percent in May.

Within the three-county region, Luzerne had the largest work force of 162,900. But 17,300 were out of work, a figure larger than the entire 14,500-member workforce of Wyoming County, which had an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent. Lackawanna County, with 108,900 in the labor force, had a 9.9 percent unemployment rate.

The jobs created in the region during the month were mostly within the service-providing sector. The leisure and hospitality category added 1,000 jobs as local restaurants and outdoor recreational businesses hired for the summer. The government category grew by 700 with the hiring of workers for the U.S. Census. But educational services cut 1,000 jobs with the end of the spring semester at local colleges and universities.

In the goods-producing sector, the other main component of the job market, the mining, logging and construction category added 300 jobs because of the warmer weather allowing for more outdoor activity.

Jerry Lynott, a Times Leader staff writer, can be contacted at 570 829-7237.

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