The state’s unemployment numbers for June are in, and despite a drop of 0.4% statewide in how many Pennsylvanians are without jobs - to 13% - our area is among the highest in job losses.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is higher than the national rate of 11.1%.

Hardest hit has been the leisure and hospitality industry, which has lost a whopping 37.3% of its workforce since the beginning of the year statewide.

Of course, it is squarely related to the COVID-19 pandemic which hit parts of our area particularly hard early on. Monroe County, which is so reliant on tourism, had at one point the highest per capita infection rate in the state in March and early April.

When Gov. Tom Wolf announced stay-at-home orders, all of those leisure-time businesses shut down and did not partially reopen until our area went into the green phase of the three-step reopening plan structured by the state.

Monroe County’s unemployment rate clocked in at 18% in June, highest in the state, but this was a slight improvement over May, indicating the county is starting to call back employees. Most employers, however, are cautious not to overplay their hand by calling back workers then laying them off again in this uncertain environment.

Pennsylvania’s infection rate is more than twice as high as it had been in May when the state had successfully flattened the curve. With this surge in cases, non-food-serving bars have been ordered to close, and restaurants have been reduced in the number of diners they can host at one time.

A spokesman for the restaurant industry testified before a state House committee on Tuesday that up to 7,500 eateries throughout the state might be forced to close their doors for good if the state doesn’t ease its recent restriction mandating that occupancy be capped at 25% of capacity.

I certainly agree that this is not a sustainable business model, especially with the added costs that food providers are incurring to sanitize and safeguard their facilities for the safety of the public and their workers.

Despite gaining 15,300 jobs, the June unemployment rate for the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Carbon County, ticked up 0.1% to 14.2%, the fourth highest in the state. This MSA also includes Northampton and Lehigh counties in Pennsylvania and Warren County in New Jersey.

The Pottsville MSA, which includes the greater Schuylkill County area, had an unemployment rate of 12.9%

Leisure- and tourism-related jobs in the A-B-E MSA showed a whopping 40% drop in employment compared to June 2019. State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, said recently that tourism is Carbon’s top industry, acknowledging that the pandemic has been devastating to many small-business owners in communities such as Jim Thorpe and eastern areas of the county which are viewed as part of the Poconos.

Some of the major Pocono resorts have been reopened for several weeks but at limited capacity. More out-of-state patrons are gradually returning to these recreation areas and water parks, but there is still a reluctance on the part of others who fear being infected.

For local residents, despite a statewide mandatory mask requirement, they live in constant fear of being infected by visitors from hot spot states whom they encounter at Walmart and other big-box retailers. Pennsylvania has a list of 20 states which state residents should self-quarantine for 14 days when they return from. This restriction has been branded as impractical and largely ignored.

Amid all of this grim news, there is a glimmer of hope. The largest statewide gain was in leisure and hospitality, which added 76,100 jobs from May. In addition, Pennsylvania has recovered nearly 40% of the total nonfarm jobs lost in March and April. Despite this, all categories of jobs show near historic unemployment levels.

Aside from the Monroe and A-B-E MSAs making the worst four, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area has the second highest unemployment rate for June at 15.2%, while Erie is number three at 14.5%.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com