State of our national, state, and local economies
SUNBURY— The Pennsylvania employment report is out and shows unemployment is holding steady in 2018. The state Department of Labor and Industry released their most recent report with the unemployment rate at 4.8 percent in January; the national rate is 4.1 percent in February. The report also showed that employment and payrolls decreased slightly.
Although, nationally U.S. employers added 313,000 jobs last month, Robert Garrett, President and CEO of the Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce, said the participation rate rose by three tenths a percent, and that’s why the unemployment rate didn’t move, “Participation rate, that went up and that’s why the unemployment rate didn’t move even though this phenomenal 313,000 jobs created in February.”
Garrett spoke about the state of our local economy, “Our best measure is help wanted signs and they are everywhere, in fact I would say locally here we are in a labor shortage situation and that’s why we are focused so much on the participation rate.”
Garrett says the chamber encourages people to take advantage of local colleges and universities to get the skills they need to get the jobs being created in the Valley. You can hear the full conversation from Friday’s On The Mark at WKOK.com. (Sarah Benek)
