Unemployment dipped slightly in October from the previous month across the Hudson Valley region, but jobless rates still were more than 2 percent higher than a year ago throughout the area.
The region”™s economy continued to fare better than New York state overall, which had a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in October of 9 percent, the highest since April 1983, according to state Labor Department officials. The state reported 12,700 fewer jobs last month than in September. The number of unemployed workers statewide rose to 872,000 in October, the highest level since the Labor Department began its current recordkeeping in 1976.
The Hudson Valley region lost 16,900 private-sector jobs from October 2008 to last month, a 2.2 percent decline. As in previous months, the only October employment gains were posted in the educational and health services sectors, which were up a combined 5,400 jobs from a year ago. Johny Nelson, labor market analyst at the state Labor Department in White Plains, said the regional employment decline in October was the largest over-the-year job loss for that month since 1991.
Nelson said continued layoffs in manufacturing are a concern. From August through October, the region”™s manufacturing job count declined from the prior year by 7.1 percent. By comparison, employment from August through October 2008 dropped 3.1 percent from the previous year.
In Westchester County, unemployment in October dipped to 7.2 percent from 7.4 percent in September. The county”™s jobless rate was 5 percent in October 2008.
Among New York”™s 62 counties, Westchester last month recorded the 12th lowest unemployment rate. In the Hudson Valley region, Putnam County had the lowest October jobless rate at 6.8 percent, the fifth lowest statewide, along with Albany County.
Westchester”™s southern neighbor, Bronx County, ranked last in October with a 13.4 percent unemployment rate.
October unemployment rates across the Hudson region were: Dutchess County, 7.9 percent, down from 8.2 percent in September and up from 5.3 percent in October 2008; Orange County, 7.9 percent, down from 8.1 percent in September and up from 5.6 percent in October 2008; Rockland County, 7.1 percent, down from 7.4 percent in September and up from 5 percent the previous October; Ulster County, 7.7 percent, down from 8.1 percent in September and up from 5.5 percent in October 2008.
