Some Question Shale Jobs Potential with PA's Unemployment Rate on the Rise

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From John Hanger's Facts of the Day blog:
Pennsylvania is among the few states to have a higher unemployment rate in December 2012 than in December 2011. The facts are that Pennsylvania's unemployment rate was 7.9% in December 2012 and is up from 7.7% in December 2011.

Pennsylvania's economy is headed in the wrong direction, even as the national unemployment rate fell from 8.2% to 7.8%, and even as Pennsylvania becomes the third largest producer of natural gas in the country.
Read the entire post here. 

While fracktivists are quick to use this as ammo to say that shale development isn't doing what the industry says it should do, that is not necessarily the case.  Where would those unemployment rates be in Pennsylvania without the shale boom?  The lesson here is more likely that shale development isn't enough to single-handedly rescue a struggling economy.

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