She is concerned because, even if the job market is starting to blossom, 90,000 unemployed Pennsylvanians could soon find themselves ineligible for part of their jobless benefits. That is about one in six of the state's unemployed.
The first 45,000 will lose their benefits for six weeks, starting Saturday.
"People without jobs will be even more out of [the public's] mind as the unemployment rate declines and economic optimism increases," Dietrich said.
"But the statewide unemployment rate is still 8 percent, and thousands of jobless people remain as desperate as if it were the middle of the recession," she said.
For technical reasons, the benefits problem is more likely to affect unemployed Pennsylvanians than the jobless in New Jersey and Delaware.
And now, a primer on unemployment benefits:
In all three states, as in most states, the newly unemployed begin by receiving 26 weeks of state-funded unemployment benefits. Since the recession began in December 2007, the federal government has funded an additional 53 weeks' worth of payments, broken up into segments.
The last six weeks of the 53 are known as tier four, which are designed to phase out as a state's average three-month unemployment rate falls below 8.5 percent.
With a 9.2 percent unemployment rate, New Jersey's labor market is still tough enough so its jobless qualify for those six weeks. Delaware's rate also qualifies.
But Pennsylvania's three-month average just dropped below 8.5 percent, warranting the end of the tier-four benefits.
After the regular state and emergency federal benefits run out, there is still one more set of benefits for the long-term unemployed - a 20-week block known as Extended Benefits, now funded by the federal government.
