By the Numbers: 3.2% unemployment, down from 4.3%
Lancaster County's August jobless rate was the lowest among its neighbors, and employers added 5,200 jobs in a year.
Lancaster County's unemployment rate was 3.2% in August, down from 4.3% a year earlier, according to preliminary figures the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Sept. 30.
Employers in the county had 273,100 jobs on their payrolls, 5,200 more than in August 2025. That is a gain of 1.9%, more than twice the 0.8% growth for Pennsylvania as a whole.
What the number measures
The unemployment rate is the share of the labor force, people who are working or looking for work, who are out of a job and looking. It counts people where they live, so a Lancaster resident who commutes to Harrisburg counts in Lancaster.
The job count comes from a different survey. It counts jobs located in the county, wherever the workers live, and a person with two jobs counts twice.
Neither figure is seasonally adjusted. Hiring rises and falls with the seasons, so the fair comparison is August to August.
How it has changed
In 2024 and 2025, the rate climbed through the summer, peaked in August, and dropped in September. This summer it held between 3.0% and 3.2%. The August rate had risen two years in a row, to 3.9% in 2024 and 4.3% in 2025, before falling to 3.2% this year, according to the BLS series as published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Every month of 2026 so far has landed between 2.9% and 3.4%.
How it compares
Lancaster's rate was lower than every nearby metro area and below the national rate of 4.3%, measured the same way. It tied with eight other metro areas for 49th lowest among the 387 in the BLS ranking.
On jobs, only the Lebanon area grew faster in this group, and Pennsylvania as a whole grew 0.8%. Lancaster added 5,200 jobs, more than York-Hanover (2,300) and Reading (2,400) combined.
Where the jobs are
Two industries hold 41.5% of the county's payroll jobs, according to the BLS industry breakdown for Lancaster. Trade, transportation, and utilities, which covers retail, wholesale, warehousing, trucking, and utilities, had 57,700 jobs. Education and health services had 55,700. Manufacturing, with 37,200 jobs, was third.
The seasons show up here, too. Leisure and hospitality grew from 24,400 jobs in March to 28,000 in August. "All other industries" combines other services, financial activities, and information.
The takeaway
Lancaster's job market is tighter than it was a year ago and tighter than its neighbors'. A resident looking for work in August faced a county with 5,200 more payroll jobs than a year earlier and a smaller share of its workforce out of work.
The figures will move. BLS revises each month's estimate the following month, and the August numbers are preliminary.
The next number
BLS releases September figures for Lancaster on Oct. 28. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, which reported a seasonally adjusted statewide rate of 3.7% for August, releases its September statewide figures Oct. 16.
Figures are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as published on Oct. 8, 2026, and are not seasonally adjusted unless noted. August 2026 figures are preliminary.
