Private-sector jobs in New York reached an all-time high in 2018, while the state”™s unemployment rate fell to an all-time low, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor which were released March 7 by the state Department of Labor”™s Division of Research and Statistics.
Bohdan M. Wynnyk, the division”™s director, said that the private-sector job count was 8,181,000 and the unemployment rate came in at 4.1 percent. In the state, private-sector jobs went up by 1.3 percent in the period between January 2018 and January 2019, an increase of 103,900. Nationwide, 2,648,000 jobs were added, or 2.1 percent.
In the Hudson Valley, for the 12 months ending January 2019, there were 8,300 more jobs for a total of 789,100. Westchester, Rockland and Orange, as a group, showed the lowest increase in the region of 0.7 percent. Sullivan County did best, with year-over-year job growth of 9.3 percent.
Within the Hudson Valley, the category professional and business services led in job growth, with 3,900 added. Next was educational and health services, up by 3,800 jobs. Natural resources, mining and constructio” followed with 3,000 new jobs during the 12-month period, while leisure and hospitality was next with 900 jobs added. The category other services was responsible for 900 more jobs. Not doing so well were trade, transportation and utilities, which saw job losses of 3,300 and the information sector was down 500 jobs.
The Westchester-Rockland-Orange job increase, 0.7 percent, fell short of the 3.5 percent increase reported from Kingston, the 2.7 percent in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area, the 2.4 percent in Syracuse, 2.2 percent in New York City and 1.9 percent in upstate Glens Falls.
What categories of work enabled the most people to find a job? Private educational and health services added the most of any major industry sector during the 12-month period, up by 63,200. The construction industry added 13,900 jobs. Professional, scientific and technical services increased by 9,600 jobs, and if you were looking for a job in personal and laundry services, there were 2,000 more from which you could choose.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued a statement that positioned the positive numbers as evidence that his economic policies have been working.
“These numbers are proof positive of the success of our long-term strategy of boosting economic progress across every corner of the state rather than in just a few regions, as has been the case in decades past. This success is bolstered by the strength of bottom-up, regionally focused economic development and transformative investments in infrastructure and new and emerging industries to support generations of future economic growth,” Cuomo said.
