The State of Working Pennsylvania 2025 showed that the U.S. and Pennsylvania labor markets in mid-2025 were somewhat less favorable for workers than from 2022 to 2024. This blog updates that analysis with data for August 2025 on hiring rates, quit rates, and unemployment. September data would typically be available by now, but it has been delayed due to the federal government shutdown.
As the infographic below illustrates, Pennsylvania workers had unusual leverage in the labor market from 2022 to 2024 because of low unemployment, relatively high quit rates, and robust hiring. In these conditions, workers had more power to negotiate a raise or other improvements at their current job or leave for another job with higher pay.
In today’s labor market, workers have less power. Data show that hiring is slowing, quits are down, and unemployment—while still low—has ticked up since 2022-2024. In behavior analysts now call “job hugging,” workers stay in their jobs because they fear not finding a better one, or facing long-term unemployment.
The Best Recent News for Pennsylvania Workers
The federal and state jobs report for August, released after our State of Working Pennsylvania 2025, showed further evidence of a slowing national economy. Pennsylvania’s economy, however, continued to outperform the national economy. Pennsylvania saw an increase of 12,000 nonfarm jobs in August, the most in a single month since March 2025.
Pennsylvania’s labor force and job losses from the federal immigration crackdown are likely smaller than the nation’s, given the state’s relatively low share of immigrant workers. Foreign-born workers make up only a tenth of Pennsylvania’s workforce while they constitute a fifth of the national workforce.
The Less Good News for Pennsylvania Workers
With employment growth in manufacturing and construction still stagnant, employment in these blue-collar sectors remained below the pre-pandemic level in August 2025. Federal government employment fell by nearly 1,000 in just the month of August 2025. Federal employment in the state has dropped 3,700 since January 2025. The federal shutdown that started on October 1st 2025 may result in further job loss.
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate remained at 4% for the third consecutive month in August, above the 3.6% average rate during January to August 2024.
Black and Hispanic unemployment rates rose substantially over the last 12 months. Black unemployment in Pennsylvania hit a record low of 3.8% in July 2023, but rose to 6.6% in August 2025, the latest data available. Hispanic unemployment jumped from 4.4% in December 2023 to 8.0% in August 2025.
Data from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for July, also released since publication of The State of Working Pennsylvania 2025, show further signs of a weakening economy. The new national numbers grabbed headlines because of a 10-month low in job openings and lower hiring rates. In Pennsylvania, the job openings rate dropped to 4.0% in July 2025, down from 5.5% at the start of 2025. The Pennsylvania hiring rate fell to 2.5%, less than two thirds the 3.9% hiring rate at the start of the year.
Nationally, the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings has been at 0.9 or 1 for the last 14 months, indicating that there are nearly as many unemployed workers as job openings for the first time in several years. The unemployed worker-to-job opening ratio in Pennsylvania rose to 0.9 for the last seven months and to more than 1 for the last two months. PA’s unemployed worker-to-job opening ratio averaged 0.6 in 2022 and 2023 and 0.8 in 2024.