Pennsylvania was third in the nation for job growth in 2025 despite recent reports showing a weakened labor market.
Despite last week’s federal jobs report showing that 92,000 Americans lost their jobs in February, some in Pennsylvania remain hopeful as the commonwealth’s economy continues to outpace the economy on the national level.
“The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the national Employment Situation for February 2026 [on Friday]. Payroll employment fell by 92,000 jobs. Combined with December revisions, the Economic Policy Institutes notes that average job growth over the last three months has fallen to under 6,000,” Maisum Murtaza, an economist at the Keystone Research Center, said in a statement.
NBC News reported that last week’s jobs report saw revisions that cut December’s jobs total from adding 50,000 jobs to contracting 17,000 jobs, and following those corrections, 2025 became the first year since 2010, when the economy was recovering from financial collapse, to record five months of market contractions.
“Keystone Research Center noted signs of a less worker-friendly labor market in 2025 compared with the previous two years” Murtaza said. “While Pennsylvania sustained more momentum on job growth than the nation in 2025, the unemployment rate rose gradually, data revisions showed a weaker labor economy than initially reported, hiring slowed, and job openings declined.”
With the national unemployment rate creeping up to 4.4%, Pennsylvania’s rate has remained below the national average at 4.2%, but those numbers won’t be updated until later next month.
In 2025, Pennsylvania was the only state in the northeastern US to have an expanding economy, and it was one of only 16 states throughout the country that had an expanding economy, according to Moodys.
So far this year, Pennsylvania is third in the nation in layoff notices with 4,000 workers receiving their layoff notices as of last month, but data from the BLS shows that the commonwealth was third in the country in job growth last year adding 76,000 jobs for 2025.
During that time, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh ranked as two of the top metro areas in the country creating 36,400 and 13,000 jobs in their respective metropolitan areas.
“From day one, my Administration has been laser focused on making Pennsylvania a national leader on economic development. In the last 3 years, we’ve secured more private sector investments in the Commonwealth than in the last 15 years combined to create new jobs and foster real innovation in Pennsylvania,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement.
