Warren County Unemployment rises, still lower than 2017

According to statistics released Thursday by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, the county unemployment rate for November was 4.2 percent.

That is an increase of 0.2 percent over October, which in turn was 0.2 percent higher than September.

The unemployment rate was down compared to statistics from one year before. The November 2017 unemployment rate in the county was 5.0 percent, according to Labor and Industry.

The department provided seasonally-adjusted rates as a way to take into account predictable labor changes including weather, harvests, major holidays, and school schedules. The county’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for November was 4.6 percent — the same as October’s, and higher than the 4.3 percent in September.

Regionally, Warren County’s unemployment rate falls near the middle of the range for both overall unemployment — 4.1 to 4.4 — and for the seasonally-adjusted rate — 4.5 to 4.8. Forest County easily had the highest rates in the region — 5.6 and 6.0 percent.

The unemployment rate statewide is 0.4 percent lower than Warren County’s on both scales — at 3.8 and 4.2 percent, according to Labor and Industry, and the federal rate is even lower — 3.5 and 3.7.