Blair unemployment rate increases slightly

The unemployment rate in June dropped in one area county, held steady in another and increased in the four other counties in the region.

Cambria County saw its jobless rate drop from 8.9 percent to 8.7 percent, the state Department of Labor and Industry said.

The movement was the first decline since last September.

The county's rate was 2.6 percentage points higher than June 2008. The labor force dropped over the month to 69,100; this was caused by small declines in both resident employment and unemployment, said Lauren Nimal, DLI industry and business analyst.

Linda Thompson, president of Johnstown Area Regional Industries, was pleased with the positive numbers.

"There has been a bit more optimism in our economy over the past few months, and I believe we are witnessing a slight increase in commercial activity, an increase in commercial orders for products in this region, and that is helping us as well," Thompson said.

In Blair County, the unemployment rate increased one-tenth of a percentage point in June to 7.6 percent, the highest rate for the county since October 1993. The local unemployment rate is 2.5 percentage points above the rate from one year ago, making June the seventh month in a row it has been 2 percentage points or more above the year-ago rate.

However, the local rate continued to be better through the current recession than the state's unemployment rate of 8.3 percent, and the nation's 9.5 percent.

The unemployment rate in Centre County remained the same at 5.8 percent. Centre County has had the lowest rate in Pennsylvania for eight straight months and is the only county to have an unemployment rate under 6 percent throughout 2009.

Cameron County has the highest rate at 18.6 percent.

Elsewhere in the past month, the unemployment rate in Bedford County increased from 10.8 percent to 11.2 percent; Clearfield County's rate increased from 10.6 percent to 10.9 percent; and Huntingdon County's rate edged up from 11.4 percent to 11.5 percent.