In June, Butler County reported the lowest unemployment rate in the Pittsburgh, Pa. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) at 6.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that among the seven counties that make up the metropolitan area, Fayette and Armstrong registered the highest unemployment rates at 9.1 and 8.5 percent, respectively. They were also the only counties in the area to exceed the national jobless rate of 8.4 percent. The remaining four counties had lower unemployment rates, ranging from 7.0 to 7.7 percent. (See chart 1 and chart 2. The Technical Note at the end of this release contains the metropolitan area definition. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

Five of the seven counties in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area had unemployment rates that were lower in June 2012 than the previous year. (See table A.) Beaver County had the largest over-the-year unemployment rate decrease in the area, down 0.7-percentage point; this was close to the national decline of 0.9 percentage point. The four remaining counties posted jobless rate declines equal to or less than 0.5 percentage point. Fayette County’s unemployment rate was unchanged over the year, while Armstrong County posted a jobless rate increase of 0.4-percentage point from June 2011.

Table A. Unemployment rates for the United States, the Pittsburgh, Pa. Metropolitan Statistical Area, and its components, not seasonally adjusted

Area	Back data	Unemployment rates			Net change from
		Jun 2010	Jun 2011	Jun 2012 (1)	Jun 2010 to Jun 2012 (1)	Jun 2011 to Jun 2012 (1)
United States		9.6	9.3	8.4	-1.2	-0.9
Pittsburgh, Pa. Metropolitan Statistical Area		7.8	7.6	7.3	-0.5	-0.3
Allegheny County, Pa.		7.6	7.3	7.0	-0.6	-0.3
Armstrong County, Pa.		8.8	8.1	8.5	-0.3	0.4
Beaver County, Pa.		7.9	8.0	7.3	-0.6	-0.7
Butler County, Pa.		7.2	7.1	6.6	-0.6	-0.5
Fayette County, Pa.		9.3	9.1	9.1	-0.2	0.0
Washington County, Pa.		7.8	7.5	7.4	-0.4	-0.1
Westmoreland County, Pa.		8.0	7.9	7.7	-0.3	-0.2
Footnotes (1) Data for the Pittsburgh, Pa. Metropolitan Statistical Area and its components are preliminary for the most recent month.

In June 2012, all seven area counties posted lower jobless rates than two years ago. Allegheny, Beaver, and Butler Counties recorded the largest decrease since June 2010, down 0.6 percentage point each—just half the national decrease of 1.2 percent. The unemployment rates for the remaining counties in the Pittsburgh area declined by less than 0.5 percentage point.

Technical Note

This release presents unemployment rate data for states and counties from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program, a federal-state cooperative endeavor. 

Definitions. The labor force and unemployment data are based on the same concepts and definitions as those used for the official national estimates obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a sample survey of households that is conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau. The LAUS program measures employment and unemployment on a place-of-residence basis. The universe for each is the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over.  Employed persons are those who did any work at all for pay or profit in the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month) or worked 15 hours or more without pay in a family business or farm, plus those not working who had a job from which they were temporarily absent, whether or not paid, for such reasons as labor-management dispute, illness, or vacation. Unemployed persons are those who were not employed during the reference week (based on the definition above), had actively looked for a job sometime in the 4-week period ending with the reference week, and were currently available for work; persons on layoff expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed.  The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force.

Method of estimation. Estimates for the substate areas in this release are prepared through indirect estimation procedures using a building-block approach. Employment estimates, which are based largely on “place of work” estimates from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program, are adjusted to refer to place of residence as used in the CPS. Unemployment estimates are aggregates of persons previously employed in industries covered by state unemployment insurance (UI) laws and entrants to the labor force data from the CPS. The substate estimates of employment and unemployment, which geographically exhaust the entire state, are adjusted proportionally to ensure that they add to the independently estimated state or balance-of-state totals. A detailed description of the estimation procedures is available from BLS upon request.

Annual revisions. Labor force and unemployment data for prior years reflect adjustments made at the end of each year. The adjusted estimates reflect updated population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, any revisions in the other data sources, and model reestimation. In most years, historical data for the most recent five years (both seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted) are revised near the beginning of each calendar year, prior to or coincident with the release of January estimates.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request.  Voice phone:  (202) 691-5200; TDD message referral phone:  1-800-877-8339.

Area definitions. The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, dated December 1, 2009. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Pittsburgh, Pa. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington, and Westmoreland counties in Pennsylvania.

Last Modified Date: August 10, 2012