Unemployment due to Coronavirus concerns means that the unemployment rate for June 2020, while lower than that of previous months, is significantly higher than the rate at this time in 2019.
This is true for Potter and Cameron counties. It is also an accurate comparison for the unemployment rates for Bradford in McKean County and St. Marys in Elk County.
In McKean County, the unemployment rate in Bradford in June was 12.8%, according to the workforce statistics released by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry. This is a little over twice the rate recorded for June of 2019 — 5.1%. Meanwhile, the current unemployment shows improvement over the past two months, as May had a rate of 14.8% and April showed an unemployment rate of 18.3%.
In St. Marys, June of 2020 showed an unemployment rate of 17.8%, over three times the rate recorded in June 2019 (4.8%). The rate is lower than those recorded in April and May this year, 24.5% and 19.3% respectively.
In Potter County, unemployment for June 2020 was 11.6%, compared to June 2019 when the rate was 4.8%. Meanwhile, Cameron County’s unemployment rate for June 2020 was 15.7%, compared to 4.9% in June 2019.
According to the PA dashboard for weekly unemployment claims, which can be found at https://www.workstats.dli.pa.gov/dashboards/Pages/Weekly-UC.aspx, McKean County had nearly 2,000 claims between initial filing and continued claims.
The dashboard shows that of the 112 initial claims filed that week, 58% were filed by males and 42% were filed by females.
Manufacturing was the primary sector these claims were filed in, at 29.5%. Meanwhile, in an age breakdown, McKean County has 29.5% of residents age 25-34 unemployed, while 25.9% of those age 45-54 have filed claims.
Of the 1,657 ongoing claims, 22.7% were filed in the manufacturing sector and 17% were filed in healthcare and social assistance.
Broken down by age, 21% of the ongoing claims belong to residents age 25-34, 19.6% are for those age 45-54 and 19.4% are for those age 35-44.
Elk County has 2,816 continued unemployment claims as of the week ending June 27. Of those, 56.4% are in the manufacturing sector and 10.7% are in healthcare and social assistance. Those claims are submitted by the following age groups: 20% are age 25-34, 19.7% age 45-54, 19.2% for age 55-64 and 16.5% age 35-44.
Cameron County had 322 continued unemployment claims, which when broken down by age group are as follows: 24.5% in age 45-54, 21.1% in age 55-64, 20.2% in 35-44 and 18.6% in age 25-34. By sector, the claims are 57.8% in manufacturing.
