Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to sign a $40.8 billion general fund budget that includes the largest education funding increase in state history and allocates millions of dollars from Pennsylvania’s share of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) for rental assistance, child care, nursing home and long-term care recovery and more, before its Wednesday deadline.

Nearly 200 jobs are being created in Swiftwater through the opening of a new flu vaccine manufacturing facility.

With work search requirements for unemployment compensation resuming in July, Uline is hoping more people will begin looking for work and is looking to hire more than 150 people for warehouse positions for its facility in Lower Macungie Township

A recent report by the National Federation of Independent Businesses shows a record number of small business owners reporting unfilled job openings.

“Physically, psychologically, it was too much,” Grab said, adding that a lot of nurses left the field in the past year. “Unfortunately, there are not enough nurses in the pipeline to fill those spots.”

With vaccines now readily available and COVID-19 numbers dropping, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry is saying it will soon be time for those on unemployment to start looking for work.

Wages are dramatically higher because of growth in the industrial sector and the demand for workers in retail and hospitality industries that had to let many employees go at the height of the pandemic.

On May 13, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) changed its COVID-19 masking guidelines, announcing fully vaccinated Americans could now unmask indoors.

Racial inequities in the unemployment count persist, according to the United States Department of Labor’s April Jobs Report.  

Sheetz, the Altoona-based restaurant and convenience chain announced a $2/hour wage increase for all of its 18,000 store employees which will go into effect on May 21, 2021.