Financial Friday-On The Mark for January 2023 will be themed: Rooted in Progress (which is also this year’s PA Farm Show theme). The program will highlight PA Secretary of Agriculture Russ Redding and will focus on the impact of agriculture and agri-business in the Greater Susquehanna Valley.
Mark Lawrence, host of On The Mark, his co-host Ben Reichley, and I will discuss the late- breaking labor news and the economic issues, particularly agriculture-dominated topics, that are facing our nation, our state, and our valley.
Analysts are predicting that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Economic Situation Report, being released just as the program is going On Air will show:
1. Payrolls will slightly down from last month’s report 263,000 new jobs.
2. Unemployment unchanged from last month’s 3.7%
3. Participation Rate unchanged at 62.1%
4. Slight improvement in the ‘interest rate sensitive’ sectors of housing and construction 5. Wage rate increases slowing significantly
So how are we doing?
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (workstats.dli.pa.gov.dashboards /Pages/Labor-Stats.aspx) county-by-county report, Greater Susquehanna Valley counties are a mixed bag of slight increases and slight decreases in unemployment rates, yet continuing to hang with the lowest in the state as compared to all other counties. Montour up to 3.0% (yet still 4th lowest in state) with Union up to 3.3% and Snyder lowering to a similar 3.3% and once again rounding out the ‘bottom ten’ lowest counties in the state. Northumberland County nudged up slightly to 4.6%. Pennsylvania’s unemployment held steady at its historically low rate of 4.0%.
