Unemployment numbers dipped in Westchester and across the Hudson Valley region in November compared with the previous month, though employment for the month still was well below levels in the region a year ago.
Statewide unemployment was 8.4 percent in November, down from 8.7 percent in October. The national unemployment rate last month was 9.4 percent, a slight decrease from October.
In Westchester County, unemployment in November dropped to 6.8 percent from 7.2 percent in October, according to the state Labor Department. The county unemployment rate was 5.3 percent in November 2008.
Westchester had the eighth lowest unemployment rate in November among the state”™s 62 counties. Putnam County, at 6.5 percent, ranked fifth. Rockland County, at 6.6. percent, was tied with Nassau County as sixth lowest in unemployment statewide.
November unemployment was higher to the north in the mid-Hudson Valley, where jobless rates stayed well above 7 percent for the month.
In Dutchess County, the unemployment rate was 7.5 percent, compared with 7.9 percent in October and 5.6 percent in November 2008. Ulster County also had a 7.5 percent unemployment rate in November, compared with 7.7 percent in October and 5.9 percent in November 2008.
In Orange County, unemployment dropped slightly to 7.7 percent in November from 7.9 percent in October. Orange County had a 5.9 percent jobless rate in November 2008.
Â
Over the last year through November, private-sector employment in the Hudson Valley decreased by 19,600 jobs, or 2.6 percent, to a total of 744,500 jobs, according to state Labor Department analysts.
Â
The Putnam-Rockland-Westchester labor market has shed 11,800 private-sector jobs since November 2008, a 2.4 percent decline.
The Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown labor market has lost 6,300 private-sector jobs since November 2008, a 3.1 percent decrease. The Kingston labor market shed 1,000 private-sector jobs over the same one-year period, a 2.1 percent decrease.
Labor Department analysts said over the last year, only the educational and health services sectors saw increased hiring, with 4,900 additional jobs. The largest private-sector declines since November 2008 occurred in trade, transportation and utilities, with 7,600 fewer jobs; manufacturing, down 4,000 jobs; professional and business services, down 3,500; leisure and hospitality, down 3,300 jobs; natural resources, mining and construction, down 3,100; information, down 1,800, and financial activities, which shed 1,200 positions. The government sector shed 1,400 jobs over the year.
Johny Nelson, labor market analyst at the state Labor Department office in White Plains, said major expansions recently announced by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Westchester, Time Warner Cable in Orange County and Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Dutchess County “have given new hope to local job seekers.” Those expansions, which could create an estimated 700 to 800 permanent jobs, “should help buffer some of the job losses the region has endured since the start of the recession,” Nelson said.