Hudson Valley’s November unemployment rate lowest since 2007

Unemployment in the seven-county Hudson Valley region dropped to 4.2 percent in November, its lowest rate for the month in eight years, as private-sector employers added a total of 8,200 jobs across the region from a year ago, according to the state Department of Labor.

In Westchester County, the November unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.1 percent, a .2 percent decline from October, and matched the month”™s unemployment rate in Rockland and Dutchess counties. Putnam County had the region”™s lowest unemployment level in November at 4 percent.

The statewide unemployment rate in November remained at 4.8 percent, the lowest level since November 2007, Labor Department officials reported. The state private-sector job count last month increased by 176,700 from November 2014. Officials in Albany said the number of private-sector jobs statewide reached 7,869,600, an all-time high.

The Hudson Valley”™s private sector showed modest 1.1 percent job growth in November from 12 months earlier. The region”™s consistently strong educational and health services sector added 7,800 jobs last month since November 2014, a 4.5 percent increase. A resurgent natural resources, mining and construction sector added 3,600 jobs in November from the previous year, a 7.5 percent increase.

Manufacturing companies across the region had 600 more jobs in November than a year earlier, a 1.3 percent increase.

Those private-sector job gains last month were partly offset by a net loss of 3,000 jobs in trade, transportation and utilities since the previous November, a 1.6 percent decline, and a continued decline in the financial activities sector, which shed 1,300 jobs last month compared with November 2014.

The leisure and hospitality sector, one of the region”™s leading job generators through 2015, in November was down 1,800 jobs from a year earlier, a 2.2 percent decline.

Other service business in the region fared better in November, adding a total of 2,200 jobs from the previous year, a 5.3 percent increase.