Despite 500 entrants to the labor force between May and June, Butler County's jobless rate increased 0.3 percentage points last month.

Local-level unemployment data, released Tuesday by the state Department of Labor & Industry, shows the county's unemployment rate increased month-over-month for the first time since February as its labor force increased, too, for the first time in four months.

The number of people in the labor force includes those who are employed and unemployed, but does not include retirees; students; those taking care of family members; or people who want to work and have sought employment in the past 12 months, but haven't looked for a job in the past four weeks or were unavailable for work.

The preliminary data show Butler's labor force increased from 95,600 to 96,100 between May and June, but a smaller 200-worker increase in employment — from 90,800 in May to 91,000 in June — led to the jump in the county's jobless rate.

Nearby counties also saw the same double-edged sword as Butler, as Allegheny, Beaver, Lawrence and Mercer counties witnessed a rise in those joining or re-joining the labor force, but a higher subsequent jobless rate. Armstrong, Venango and Westmoreland counties saw their unemployment rates fall, and Clarion County had a higher jobless rate in June than in May because of a 100-person decrease in unemployed workers and no change in the labor force.

Even with the June bump, Butler County is tied for the 12th-lowest jobless rate in Pennsylvania, a two-position increase from its 14th-lowest ranking in May.

In Cranberry Township — the only county municipality for which separate data is provided — the jobless rate increased by 0.5 points between May and June, generally because of the same factors affecting the county.Cranberry's May labor force was 17,100 workers, but that figure increased to 17,400 in June. A similar increase of 200 workers — from 16,500 to 16,700 — who were employed occurred, but the 100-worker remainder led to a jobless rate jump from 3.3% to 3.8% in Cranberry.Still, however, Cranberry's jobless rate remained lower than the county's as a whole by more than 2 percentage points, a difference seen during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic recovery.In April 2020, when both the county and Cranberry had their worst jobless numbers since at least 2000, the earliest township data available from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, Cranberry's 12.4% rate was still 3 points lower than the county's 15.4%.