Gov. Ed Rendell

HARRISBURG — The number of Pennsylvanians with jobs continued to grow in November and state tax collections remain on track as the budget year approaches its midpoint, Gov. Ed Rendell said Thursday.

At a Capitol news briefing Thursday, Rendell said the state’s unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent in November, a 0.2 percent decline that reflected the addition of 5,100 nonfarm jobs. It was the fourth consecutive decline in the state unemployment rate.

The national rate in November was 9.8 percent.

Over the year ending last month, the number of jobs in Pennsylvania increased by 57,000 to 5,619,700. Rendell said.

Flanked by his budget and labor secretaries, the Democratic governor noted that many Pennsylvanians who want jobs remain unemployed and urged Congress to extend federally funded emergency unemployment benefits that 140,000 residents otherwise will lose this month.

“None of us stand here today to say that the Pennsylvania economy is in good shape. It isn’t,” Rendell said. “There are still too many people who are hurting, too many people looking for work.”

The federal program lapsed Nov. 30 but would be extended through 2011 as part of the compromise on taxes between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans. That deal is pending in the House after being approved by the Senate.

Also Thursday, seeking to put a positive spin on his fiscal stewardship a month before he leaves office, Rendell said tax revenues remain on target overall for the year that ends June 30, with sluggish personal income-tax collections being largely offset so far by stronger-than-expected sales and corporate tax revenue. As of Nov. 30, the state had collected $9.2 billion in revenue in the current fiscal year, or 0.2 percent above estimates.

Larger-than-expected demand for Medicaid services could leave a shortfall of more than $60 million in the $28 billion budget that lawmakers approved last summer, he said.