Monthly Economic Report: Philadelphia’s Unemployment Rate Lowest Since 2008


Audit Date: October 29, 2014
Audit Categories
  • Financial
Controller: Alan Butkovitz

Executive Summary


For Immediate Release
Oct. 29, 2014

Contact: Brian Dries
215-686-8869

Philadelphia’s Unemployment Rate Lowest Since 2008
City Controller’s monthly economic report reviews latest employment data
& tax revenue collections

September 2014 Economic Report

PHILADELPHIA – City Controller Alan Butkovitz today released his latest monthly Economic Report that indicated the City of Philadelphia’s current non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 7.1 percent, marking a six-year low.

Of the approximately 640,100 residents in Philadelphia’s Labor Force for September, 45,200 are considered to be unemployed. In September 2008, there were 633,000 in the City’s Labor Force and 46,400 considered unemployed, recording a non-seasonally unemployment rate of 7.3 percent.

In addition to the City’s latest employment data, Philadelphia’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for September since 2008 includes the following:
September 2013 9.9%
September 2012 10.6%
September 2011 11.2%
September 2010 10.6%
September 2009 10.2%
September 2008 7.3%

Along with reviewing Philadelphia’s unemployment decline, the Controller’s monthly economic report showed City General Fund tax revenues for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2015 totaled almost $494 million, posting a 2.4 percent increase over the same period last year. Revenue collections increased for the Realty Transfer Tax, 29 percent, and Wage Tax, almost six percent.

Monthly Sales Tax collections for September totaled $10.8 million, which is a 50 percent decrease compared to last September. The significant decrease was a result of the City’s General Fund receiving only one percent, instead of two, of the total eight percent Sales Tax. The majority of the additional one percent the City was receiving is now going to the Philadelphia School District.

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