Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate stayed at 3.5% in August

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate was unchanged between July and August, remaining at the record low rate of 3.5%, the state announced Friday. That low dates back to January 1976.

The state unemployment rate was 0.8 percentage points below its August 2022 level of 4.3%, according to the Department of Labor and Industry. The national rate was unchanged year-over-year in August, at 3.8%, an uptick from July’s 3.5%.

In Pennsylvania, non-farm jobs were up 15,800 over the month to a new record high of 6,164,500 in August. It marked the eighth consecutive month that jobs rate has hit a new all-time high.

Across all of the 11 “supersectors” tracked, the number of jobs increased between July and August, with the largest gains in education and health services, which added 7,400 jobs, rising to yet another new record high level.