Warren County’s unemployment rate was up in December.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s Center for Workforce Information and Analysis data, the December unemployment rate 6.4 percent. The seasonally-adjusted rate looks slightly better at 6.3 percent.

While those are higher than the rates one month and one year earlier, the county had the lowest unemployment rate in the region, and was below both the state and national averages.

In November, the county’s rate was 5.7 percent (5.9 seasonally-adjusted). In December of 2019, the rate was 5.0 percent (both).

According to the data, there were about the same number of residents unemployed (1,000) in December 2019 and November 2020, but the labor force was down 400 (to 18,500) in November.

For December 2020, the labor force was up 100 compared to November, but unemployment was up by about 200.

In the region, the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rates were: 6.9 percent in Bradford, 7.0 percent in Meadville, 7.1 percent in Oil City, and 7.7 percent in both Forest County and Erie.

Both the state- and nation-wide adjusted unemployment rates for December were 6.7 percent.

From November, the county lost jobs in leisure and hospitality. Over the year, there were losses in goods-producing jobs, leisure and hospitality, and education and health services. There was an increase in local government jobs over that time.

According to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor, seasonal adjustment “is a statistical technique that attempts to measure and remove the influences of predictable seasonal patterns to reveal how employment and unemployment changes from month-to-month.”

“These seasonal adjustments make it easier to observe the cyclical, underlying trend and other nonseasonal movements in the series,” making it possible to compare month-to-month.