Chester County’s employment picture continued to brighten in February, easily out pacing employment of counties across the Delaware Valley and Pennsylvania.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s March 2015 Fast Fact report,  Chester County’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in February fell to 3.7 percent. The drop marks the eighth straight monthly decrease.

Of Chester County’s 271,600 civilian workforce, 261,400 had jobs while 10,200 remained unemployed.

Across the state, Pennsylvania’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate went up 0.1 percent to 5.2 percent, while the national rate dropped 0.2 percent to 5.5 percent.

Chester County led Pennsylvania’s 67 counties with the lowest unemployment rate. Rates across Pennsylvania ranged from 3.7 percent in Chester County to a high of 7.4 percent in Philadelphia County.

Jobless rates in adjacent counties were 4.0 percent in Montgomery County, 4.1 percent in Lancaster County and 4.9 percent in both Delaware and Berks County.

The Construction industry (5.7%) in Chester County had the largest increase in employment over the last year followed by the Utilities sector(5.5%). The Mining, Quarrying, Oil and Gas sector (-7.9%) followed by Admin and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services (both at 3.4%) saw the biggest drop in county residents employed.

According to the report, Chester County-based companies continue to look for people to fill open positions. In February companies in the county placed a combined 8,267 online Help Wanted ads, a 1.7 percent increase from the 8,127 online ads Chester County-based companies placed in the same month a year earlier.

Occupational groups with the biggest jump in classified ad placement were Education (48.3%) followed by Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports and Media (29.0%) and Transportation and Material Moving (25.8%).  The Community and Social Services (-36.1%) occupation group saw the biggest drop among the 23 occupational categories measured by the state.

County companies placing the most online Help Wanted ads in February were AmerisourceBergen (224), Main Line Health (168), Judge Group (161) and the Johnson & Johnson family of companies (145).

The full Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry report here.

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Top photo courtesy of the Chester County Planning Commission.