PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate fell for two straight months, from 7.7 percent in August to 7.6 percent in September and then 7.5 percent in October, according to figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report covered two months because the partial government shutdown in October delayed the reporting on September’s figures.
The state’s falling unemployment rate mostly reflects the declining number of people who are in the labor force. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report, the number of people who were in the state’s labor force, which means they were either working or looking for a job, fell by 41,000 over the past two months…
Friday’s report marks one of those counterintuitive moments when what looks like good news is really bad news because while the unemployment rate is declining, it is doing so because people are giving up looking for a job. That is the opposite of those months, earlier in the recovery, when rising unemployment turned out to be good news because it meant more people were looking for work… (more)
