As Pennsylvania's jobless rate edges up, Philly sees sharp climb
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Pennsylvania's jobless rate has inched up over the past year as the unemployed enter a grim job market.
Why it matters: The past three months saw the weakest job creation in the U.S., outside of the pandemic, since 2010 in the wake of the global financial crisis.
State of play: The Commonwealth's unemployment rate was 4% in July, up from 3.6% at the same time in 2024, per the most recent preliminary and seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Yes, but: Philly proper and the region are faring worse.
- Within Philly's limits, the jobless rate continued to climb in July, hitting 5.7%.
- And throughout the region —spanning chunks of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland — unemployment stood at 4.9% in July, an increase from the previous month.
Meanwhile, the national average has hovered between 4% and 4.2% for the past 12 months.
The big picture: The states with the lowest unemployment rates are South Dakota (1.9%), North Dakota (2.5%) and Vermont (2.6%), BLS data shows.
- While D.C. (6%); California (5.5%) and Nevada (5.4%) had the highest.
Threat level: The number of long-term unemployed has risen sharply in previous years, per the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
- Plus: A quarter of unemployed workers have been out of a job 27 weeks — that's more than six months — or longer.
Another troubling sign: The white-collar employment picture is also bleak. Employment in professional and business services has steadily declined this year, after surging in the post-pandemic era, Axios' Emily Peck reports.
- Employees are reporting high job anxiety. There's also increasing fear that AI will come for their jobs.
What we're watching: "Job hugging" is the latest employment trend that's replaced job hopping in this era of rising unemployment and challenging job prospects.