The month of October saw continued improvement in the region’s unemployment rates.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry Center for Workforce Information & Analysis, McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter counties each saw improvements.
The state rate for October was 7.3%, and the national rate was 6.9%.
In Bradford, which represents McKean County in the center’s data, the rate for October was 7.2%, an improvement over September’s rate of 8.1%. While still not back to pre-pandemic levels, the unemployment rate is getting closer to what it was last year. According to the center’s data, the rate in October 2019 was 6% for Bradford.
In Elk County, October’s rate was 8.6%, down from 9.9% one month earlier. There’s still a ways to go to last year’s rate, which was 6.2%.
Potter County’s rate for unemployment for October was 7.4%, down from 8.7% the prior month. One year earlier, the rate was 6.5%.
Cameron County’s rate for October was 8.6%, a considerable improvement over the September rate of 12.1%, and lower than the rate one year ago, which was 9.2%.
In the state ranking by unemployment rates, McKean County is tied for 35th place with 8 other counties; Potter is tied with 4 other counties for 44th place; and Elk and Cameron are tied for 60th place.
Centre County is in first place with 4.4% unemployment, while Philadelphia is in last place with 10.7%.
For the week ending Nov. 14, McKean County had 58 initial claims, which were spread as follows: 22.4% in construction, 19% in health care and social assistance, 15.5% in manufacturing and 12.1% in accommodation and food services; and 580 continued claims: 21.6% in manufacturing, 15% in health care and social assistance, 13.3% in accommodation and food services and 11% in construction.
Elk County had 99 initial claims, 43.4% of which were in the manufacturing sector, and 815 continued claims, the majority of which — 54.5% — were in the manufacturing sector.
Potter County had 28 initial claims: 32.1% in construction, 17.9% in public administration, 14.3% in professional and technical services, and 10.7% in manufacturing; and 228 continued claims: 17.5% in manufacturing, 15.8% in construction and 15.4% in transportation and warehousing.
Cameron County had 12 initial claims for unemployment, and 101 continued claims. The majority of continued claims — 54.5% — were in manufacturing.
