June proved to be a flowering month for local job seekers as Mercer County's unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent during the month, down from 5 percent in May.

Three hundred county residents finding work -- particularly in the construction and manufacturing sector -- helped to push down the local jobless rate, said the state Department of Labor and Industry.

June's local rate was below the state 5.5 percent rate and the national 6 percent figure. Also, the rate was a full percentage point lower than the June 2001 rate of 5.6 percent.

Mercer County ranked 7th among the state's 43 labor market areas in terms of the best unemployment rate and was tied for 14th place with Allegheny County among the state's 67 counties.

Forest County had the highest unemployment rate in the state at 16.6 percent while Cumberland County had the lowest at 3.4 percent.

The number of those employed in the county during June was 55,600. That was tempered somewhat by school terms ending at local private colleges. The civilian labor force remained steady at 58,200 in June while those unemployed fell by 200 during the month to stand at 2,700.

Goods producing jobs were up 200 in June with construction, mining and manufacturing each gaining 100 jobs. Still, goods producers have trimmed payrolls by 700 jobs from a year ago with the majority of the casualties being in durable goods manufacturing.

Average weekly earnings of production workers were $640.34 in June, a $50.77 jump from the same year-ago period due to the average workweek rising by 1.9 hour to 41.1 hours and a 54-cents increase in average hourly pay.

Service producing jobs declined by 500 in June with educational services absorbing all of the losses due to local colleges moving to lighter summer schedules.

Surrounding county's jobless rates were:

   » Lawrence, 5.9 percent

   » Butler, 5 percent

   » Crawford, 7.4 percent

   » Venango, 5.3 percent

Sharon's jobless rate was 5.5 percent. A rate is kept for Sharon because it's the county's largest city.