While Hudson Valley employers continued to add jobs in June, the region”™s unemployment rate rose to 8 percent, marking its highest point since January 2010, when it was at 8.3 percent.
Despite adding 11,700 private sector jobs over the past year, the Hudson Valley unemployment rate increased by nearly a full point compared to June 2011, when it was at 7.2 percent.
Similarly, the Westchester County unemployment rate increased to 7.5 percent from 7.1 percent in May and 6.8 percent in June 2011, while the statewide unemployment rate increased to 8.9 percent from 8.6 percent in May and 8.2 percent a year ago.
The Hudson Valley and Westchester data were not seasonally adjusted, which, according to labor analysts, makes annual comparisons more valid than month-to-month comparisons.
State officials attributed the higher unemployment rate to a significant increase over the past 12 months in the state”™s labor force, which is the total of all employed and unemployed residents who are actively seeking work.
The labor force typically grows as confidence in the overall economy improves and unemployed residents who were previously discouraged and not seeking work re-enter the job market, officials said.
“The state”™s private sector employers continued to add jobs in June 2012,” said Bohdan M. Wynnyk, deputy director of the state Labor Department”™s division of research and statistics, in a statement. “In recent months, growth in our statewide labor force, however, has contributed to a higher state jobless rate.”
In the Hudson Valley, the labor force increased by 14,900 people, or 1.3 percent, between June 2011 and June 2012.
Recent job market trends continued, as private sector job growth in the Hudson Valley was concentrated in professional and business services, education and health services and leisure and hospitality.
Over the past year, those three sectors combined to add 12,300 jobs, growing annually by 2.2 percent, 3.1 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively.
Likewise, overall gains were held back by cuts in construction and manufacturing.
The natural resources, mining and construction sector shed 2,600 jobs, a 5.9 percent drop, between June 2011 and June 2012.
Through the first six months of 2012, the sector has averaged a 3.5 percent decline when compared to the same month of the previous year.
The manufacturing sector lost 1,400 jobs, a 2.9 percent decline.
