Pa. economy continues steady growth, record-low unemployment

The job market in April is the strongest in six decades, according to a study conducted by the Keystone Research Center.

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) released its preliminary jobs report for April 2024, showing that u nemployment is continuing its record-low run as it remains at 3.4%.

“The job market in April remained the strongest since the 1960s from the perspective of workers,” the Keystone Research Center (KRC) executive director and economist Stephen Herzenberg said in a statement. “The unemployment rate continued at 3.4% and has now been between 3.2% and 3.4% for 12 months in a row.”

According to a release, the? KRC ?is “a nonpartisan economic think tank dedicated to conducting research and advancing policies that promote shared prosperity and economic opportunity for all Pennsylvanians.”

The KRC study shows the following:

• The number of nonfarm jobs rose to a record high 6,149,500, an increase of 2,600 jobs over March and the ninth consecutive monthly increase.



• Pennsylvania has gained 81,000 jobs over the last 12 months.



• The Pennsylvania unemployment rate is now half a percentage point below the national 3.9% rate in April.???

"Persistent low unemployment gives workers more leverage in the job market individually and collectively, and that means more buying power in workers’ pay packets each month,” economic analyst Maisum Murtaza said.

The Economic Policy Institute documented recently that U.S. workers have now seen average real wage increases for 12 consecutive months.?At the end of April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unionized workers in the U.S. enjoyed a 6.3% increase in (nominal) wages in the 12-month period ending March 2024, compared to 4.1% for nonunion workers.

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