In March, Chester County, Pa., recorded the lowest unemployment rate in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) at 5.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that Salem County, N.J. (10.7 percent) posted the highest unemployment rate among the 11 counties that make up the metropolitan area. Five other counties also posted jobless rates greater than the U.S. average of 7.6 percent, while five others had rates lower than or equal to the U.S. rate. (See chart 1 and chart 2. The Technical Note at the end of this release contains metropolitan area definitions. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

From March 2012 to March 2013, 8 of 11 counties in the Philadelphia metropolitan area had lower unemployment rates, with decreases ranging from to 0.9 point in Salem, N.J., to 0.3 percentage point in both Chester and Montgomery, Pa. Over the year, the national unemployment rate declined 0.8 percentage point. The unemployment rate in Bucks County, Pa., was unchanged since last March, while the rates in New Castle County, Del., and Cecil County, Md., were up 0.2 percent each. (See table A.)

Table A. Unemployment rates for the United States, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md. Metropolitan Statistical Area, and its components, not seasonally adjusted

Area	Back data	Unemployment rates			Net change from
		Mar 2011	Mar 2012	Mar 2013 (1)	Mar 2011 to Mar 2013 (1)	Mar 2012 to Mar 2013 (1)
United States		9.2	8.4	7.6	-1.6	-0.8
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md. Metropolitan Statistical Area		8.6	8.5	8.2	-0.4	-0.3
Philadelphia, Pa. Metropolitan Division		8.2	8.3	7.9	-0.3	-0.4
Bucks County, Pa.		7.7	7.4	7.4	-0.3	0.0
Chester County, Pa.		6.2	6.1	5.8	-0.4	-0.3
Delaware County, Pa.		8.0	8.0	7.6	-0.4	-0.4
Montgomery County, Pa.		7.0	6.9	6.6	-0.4	-0.3
Philadelphia County, Pa.		10.3	10.6	10.1	-0.2	-0.5
Camden, N.J. Metropolitan Division		9.8	9.9	9.2	-0.6	-0.7
Burlington County, N.J.		8.9	9.2	8.5	-0.4	-0.7
Camden County, N.J.		10.6	10.5	9.8	-0.8	-0.7
Gloucester County, N.J.		9.9	9.9	9.3	-0.6	-0.6
Wilmington, Del.-Md.-N.J. Metropolitan Division		7.9	7.6	7.6	-0.3	0.0
New Castle County, Del.		7.2	6.9	7.1	-0.1	0.2
Cecil County, Md.		9.6	8.6	8.8	-0.8	0.2
Salem County, N.J.		11.5	11.6	10.7	-0.8	-0.9
Footnotes (1) Data for the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md. Metropolitan Statistical Area and its components are preliminary for the most recent month.

Unemployment rates in all Philadelphia-area counties were lower in March 2013 than in March 2011. New Castle County, Del., had the smallest decrease at 0.1 percentage point. The largest two-year unemployment rate decreases were recorded in Camden and Salem Counties in New Jersey and Cecil County in Maryland, down 0.8 percentage point each. Nationally, the unemployment rate declined 1.6 percentage points during the same time period.

The March 2013 unemployment rates for the three metropolitan divisions in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area were 7.6 percent in the Wilmington, Del.-Md.-N.J. division, 7.9 percent in the Philadelphia, Pa. division, and 9.2 percent in the Camden, N.J. division. Since March 2012, the Camden division posted an unemployment rate decrease of 0.7 percentage point, and the Philadelphia division rate decreased 0.4 percentage point, while the jobless rate in the Wilmington division was unchanged.

Technical Note

This release presents unemployment rate data for states and counties from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program, a federal-state cooperative endeavor. 

Definitions. The labor force and unemployment data are based on the same concepts and definitions as those used for the official national estimates obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a sample survey of households that is conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau. The LAUS program measures employment and unemployment on a place-of-residence basis.  The universe for each is the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over.  Employed persons are those who did any work at all for pay or profit in the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month) or worked 15 hours or more without pay in a family business or farm, plus those not working who had a job from which they were temporarily absent, whether or not paid, for such reasons as labor-management dispute, illness, or vacation. Unemployed persons are those who were not employed during the reference week (based on the definition above), had actively looked for a job sometime in the 4-week period ending with the reference week, and were currently available for work; persons on layoff expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed.  The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force.

Method of estimation. Estimates for the substate areas in this release are prepared through indirect estimation procedures using a building-block approach. Employment estimates, which are based largely on “place of work” estimates from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program, are adjusted to refer to place of residence as used in the CPS. Unemployment estimates are aggregates of persons previously employed in industries covered by state unemployment insurance (UI) laws and entrants to the labor force data from the CPS. The substate estimates of employment and unemployment, which geographically exhaust the entire state, are adjusted proportionally to ensure that they add to the independently estimated state or balance-of-state totals. A detailed description of the estimation procedures is available from BLS upon request.

Annual revisions. Labor force and unemployment data for prior years reflect adjustments made at the end of each year, usually implemented with January estimates.  The adjusted estimates reflect updated population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, any revisions in the other data sources, and model reestimation. All substate estimates are reestimated and adjusted to add to the revised model-based estimates.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone:  (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service : 800-877-8339.

Area definitions. The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, dated December 1, 2009. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties in Pennsylvania; Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Salem Counties in New Jersey; New Castle County in Delaware; and Cecil County in Maryland.

• The Camden, N.J. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties in New Jersey.
• The Philadelphia, Pa. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties in Pennsylvania.
• The Wilmington, Del.-Md.-N.J. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes New Castle County in Delaware; Cecil County in Maryland; and Salem County in New Jersey.