Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry released the Indiana County unemployment statistics, but said it will be another month before we see the effects from the Covid-19 shutdown.
Indiana County’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in February went down by one-tenth of a percentage point from 5.6 percent in January to 5.5 percent. In February of 2019, the unemployment rate was at 4.1 percent, meaning that over the year, the rate went up 1.5 percentage points.
The total number of non-farm jobs went up by 1200 in Indiana County to 32,300, while the seasonally-adjusted labor force went up by 100 to 39,500.
The reason why the Covid-19 shutdown impact has not been included in the February statistics is that the data is collected during a key week each month, a pay period that includes the 12th of each month. In Pennsylvania, since the closures started on March 15th, that data will be included in next month’s unemployment rate.
The PA Department of Labor and Industry is responding to over a million unemployment compensation claims that have been filed since mid-March, and they are beefing up their processing operations by adding staff and even bringing in IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence system.
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