Web Search powered by YAHOO! SEARCH
share
email
font size
options
 
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
One in ten out of work in Philly

Pennsylvania's Department of Labor and Industry put out a report yesterday with a minuscule piece of good news. The unemployment rate for our larger region, encompassing Philadelphia, the surrounding Pa. counties, Camden and its nearby counties and parts of Delaware and Maryland, dropped by one percentage point to 8.5 percent in July. Nice reading, but close to meaningless.It probably reflects a diminishing labor pool as people leaving the job market in desperation. You really need to see some movement for it to matter, but any glimmer will do...

Philadelphia is hurting the most with more than one in 10 unemployed.  It's now up to 10.3 percent from 7.1 percent a year ago. Lowest among the four suburban counties is Chester, with a 6.5 percent unemployment rate. The others are 7.4 percent in Bucks, 7.6 percent in Delco and 7.1 percent in Montgomery County.

Posted by Jane Von Bergen @ 10:32 AM  Permalink | 4 comments
Comments   
Posted 07:46 PM, 09/02/2009
chbradburd
we need extension on unemployment. Where us stimulus money obama was going yo give for this. There still using monety from Bush anf they sent 3,600 stimulus checks to prisoners, whats with that
Posted 06:16 AM, 09/03/2009
asdfjkl1234567890
And that fool Stu Bykofsky writes a column about hiring ex-cons instead of decent, law-abiding, taxpaying citizens first!
Posted 07:10 AM, 09/03/2009
ritaf
For six months I have been trying to get the city and state to embrace a new initiative where we could keep tens of thousands of people employed while training others for new skill jobs. Absolutely no response to my letters to mayor, Mayor's staff, governor or Governor's staff. Pretty darn sad.
Posted 08:38 AM, 09/03/2009
kelprod1
Considering 6 of the top 10 Philly market employers are in pharma and health care, those unemployment numbers will only rise when Obama gets done destroying the private sector health industry. Change you can believe in....work for the government or do not work at all.
4 comments
About Jane M. Von Bergen
Jane M. Von Bergen covers workplace issues, health insurance and organized labor for the Philadelphia Inquirer. A longtime business writer, she is now covering her second recession. Von Bergen began her reporting career in fourth grade and then married into it, falling in love with a photographer she met working while working for her college newspaper. They have two college-age sons, neither of whom is studying journalism.
Advertise Here
Jobs At a Loss: An Inquirer Series
 
Coping with unemployment
Helping the laid-off: Some dos and don'ts
Pa. plots strategy for helping fund that aids jobless
In layoff epidemic, no one is safe
Joblessness spreads in Pa. and N.J., caused by an ill economy. Any cure looks to be slow and painful.