While Governor Wolf has gotten off to a rough start, there was one positive that came out at the end of the year.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, the unemployment rate for PA as of December 2015 is 4.8%, which is down from 5.0% in December of 2014.

Good News

This is also better than the national average of 5.0%, which is unchanged from November 2015.

Other positive numbers include the labor force going up to 6,446,000, up 18,000. Non-farm jobs are also up to a record high of 5,863,500.

Leisure and hospitality jobs (3,700) saw the biggest gains in December while education and health services (14,300) experienced the largest increases over the year.

Bad News

December saw a drop of 2,500 jobs in construction while manufacturing lost 3,600 jobs over the total of 2015.