Franklin County outpaces Pennsylvania in creating jobs

HARRISBURG -- Local jobs are growing at a faster rate in Franklin County than in Pennsylvania overall.

Local jobs grew 2.3 percent during the past year, compared to 1.2 percent across the state, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

The main drivers of local job growth have been professional and business services (up 300 jobs from July 2017 to July 2018), warehousing and trucking (up 200), health and education services (up 200), retail (up 200) and leisure and hospitality (up 200).

The department on Tuesday released the latest jobs and unemployment numbers for Pennsylvania's 67 counties.

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More people entered the local workforce in July as Franklin County’s unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent, up from 3.5 percent in June. The local jobless rate is lower than the state’s 4.2 percent and the nation’s 3.9 percent. The county’s rate was 4.5 percent in July 2017.

More people were counted as looking for work. The local workforce (seasonally adjusted) grew to 77,100, the unemployed increased to 2,900 and the number of employed increased to 74,200.

Franklin County tied seven other counties for the 13th lowest unemployment rate among Pennsylvania’s counties in July. Unemployment rates and rankings of neighboring counties were: Fulton (4.2 percent, tied-31st), Huntingdon (5.0 percent, t-57th), Juniata (3.7 percent, t-13th), Perry (3.4 percent, t-seventh), Cumberland (3.0 percent, t-second) and Adams (3.0 percent, t-second).

Unemployment rates across Pennsylvania ranged from 2.9 percent in Chester County to 5.7 percent in Forest County.