Schuylkill County Unemployment Down to 4.9%

The Schuylkill County unemployment rate dropped to 4.9% in March 2019.

That rate represents a 0.4% drop in the unemployment rate compared to February of this year.

It’s off the 12-month low of 4.5% achieved by Schuylkill County in November 2018. In the last year, the highest the unemployment rate reached is 5.6% in August 2018.

Schuylkill County Unemployment Rate, March 2019

Here’s a look at the 12-month breakdown of the Schuylkill County unemployment rate. These numbers are sorted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They were last updated on May 1, 2019:

Month	Schuylkill Unemployment %
March 2019	4.9
February 2019	5.3
January 2019	5.3
December 2018	4.8
November 2018	4.5
October 2018	4.6
September 2018	4.7
August 2018	5.6
July 2018	5.4
June 2018	5.4
May 2018	4.6
April 2018	4.8

Although the unemployment rate in Schuylkill County is trending down (in a positive way), it’s still a full percentage point above the Pennsylvania unemployment rate. And the U.S. rate continues to reach record lows.

According to AP today, the national unemployment rate hit another 50-year low, 3.6%. However, the rate may be misleading a tad as it accounts for a record number of people leaving the workforce.

Unemployment Rate Surrounding Schuylkill County - March 2019

County	Unemployment Rate (March 2019)
Schuylkill	4.9
Luzerne	5.2
Columbia	4.4
Northumberland	5.4
Dauphin	3.4
Lebanon	3.4
Berks	3.8
Lehigh	4.1
Carbon	5.2

Although the unemployment rate in Schuylkill County is dropping a bit, ours is still higher than many of the counties surrounding us. The table above shows the March 2019 unemployment rate for the 8 counties surrounding Schuylkill.

The highest is in Northumberland County, with 5.4% unemployment. The lowest rates are in Dauphin and Lebanon counties, each a half-percent below the state rate, at 3.4%. Berks County is also below the state unemployment rate, at 3.8%.

The more you go into the coal region, as you can see, the higher the unemployment rates get. Luzerne and Carbon counties also have above 5% unemployment.