Economy Watch: Tracking the Pennsylvania Economy
Additional Resources
Public Safety Net Fills Gap for Many Families in Recession
Measuring the Economic Impact of the Federal Recovery Act
Policies to Save and Create New Jobs (Keystone Research Center)
Updated: August 2, 2010
The Great Recession has hit Pennsylvania families hard. Unemployment is up and many people are struggling to make ends meet.
Economic policymakers in Washington, D.C. have wisely taken steps to stem the free fall in economic activity, but there is much work that remains to be done. State and federal policymakers must continue to counter the recession-driven decline in private sector demand with public sector spending while also advancing new policies to strengthen the middle class. (See Policies to Save and Create New Jobs from the Keystone Research Center.)
PBPC's Economy Watch provides you with helpful up-to-date information about the state of Pennsylvania's economy.
Jobs and Employment
Pennsylvania Unemployment
The unemployment rate measures the share of workers who do not currently have a job but are actively looking for work.
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Pennsylvania Employment
Changes in payroll employment are jobs lost or gained in any month as a percentage of total jobs at the start of the recession.
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Comparison with Prior Recessions
Pennsylvania Unemployment
Below is a graph created by the Economic Policy Institute tracking the change in unemployment during the current recession compared to the past three recessions.
June 2010
Notes: The unemployment rate measures the share of jobless persons in the labor force (the sum of employed and unemployed persons) and not the entire population. Persons who are not actively looking for work are not included in this measure. All data seasonally adjusted.
View other state unemployment data on the interactive map on EPI's Economic Track.
Pennsylvania Employment
Below is a graph created by the Economic Policy Institute tracking the change in employment during the current recession compared to the past three recessions.
June 2010
Notes: Total nonfarm employment is the total number of jobs, part-time or full-time, in non-farm establishments. Total private employment excludes those jobs in federal, state, and local government. Manufacturing employment refers solely to manufacturing jobs. These data are from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey.
View other state employment data on the interactive map on EPI's Economic Track.
Unemployment By Pennsylvania County
The following map, created by the Keystone Research Center, tracks unemployment rates by county (through May 2010). Click on the map or click here for an animated map of the change in unemployment rates by county in Pennsylvania.
