March data for tri-state area shows continued decline in unemployment rates
"What we've been seeing is the wages have gotten better, which is a really great thing," an expert said.
The latest data from March shows that both nationwide and in the tri-state area, unemployment went down both month-to-month and year-to-year.
"We've seen people move into jobs a lot more quickly than we were," said John Dodds of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project.
In the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metro area, the number of unemployed workers in March was down 15% from February, and 13% from the same time last year, which has turned into a burst of better pay.
"What we've been seeing is the wages have gotten better, which is a really great thing," Dodds said. "We're getting fewer calls, but we're still getting 40 to 50 calls a week."
Meanwhile, the ratio of job openings to the number of unemployed job seekers fell for the fourth straight month and hit the lowest level since October 2021.
That suggests that federal policy is tightening and beginning to have its desired effect on businesses' labor demand.
Jobs and unemployment data for April will be released this Friday, May 5, and economists do expect to see the unemployment rate rise.
And, of course, experts predict that mass layoffs could be coming at three major companies with locations in the Delaware Valley.
Those are David's Bridal, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Jenny Craig, which Action News recently reported on.
