The seven-county Hudson Valley region”™s unemployment rate fell to 4.8 percent in April, its lowest level for the month in six years, according to the state Department of Labor.
Only Long Island, at 4.5 percent, had a lower unemployment rate last month among the state”™s 10 labor market regions.
Unemployment in the Hudson Valley in April was down from 6 percent in March and 6.4 percent in April last year. Labor Department officials said 52,900 workers were unemployed in the region last month, compared with 66,100 in March and 71,000 in April 2013.
Westchester County had a 4.6 percent unemployment rate in April, down from 5.7 percent in March and 6 percent in April last year, the Labor Department reported.
Westchester had the sixth-lowest unemployment rate statewide last month, tied with Saratoga County.
Putnam County led the region in the percentage of its workforce employed in April with a 4.2 percent unemployment rate. That was down from 5.2 percent in March and 5.8 percent in April 2013.
Putnam and Nassau County on Long Island had the second-lowest unemployment rate in the state in April. Tompkins County again last month led the state in employment levels with a 3.5 percent jobless rate.
Rockland County had a 4.4 percent unemployment rate in April, down from 5.3 percent in March and 5.6 percent in April last year.
Labor Department researchers reported the Putnam-Rockland-Westchester labor market gained 6,600 private-sector jobs in April from the previous month, a 1.4 percent increase.
However, over a one-year period from April 2013, private-sector employment in the tricounty area was flat, with only 100 jobs added, according to the Labor Department.
The construction, mining and natural resources sector posted the largest month-to-month job gains in April in the tricounty area, with 2,000 jobs added, a 7.5 percent increase. Hiring by specialty trade contractors accounted for the bulk of that gain. Those contractors added 1,300 jobs from March through April, a 6.8 percent increase.
The leisure and hospitality industry in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties added 2,400 jobs in April from March, a 5.2 percent increase.
