Construction leads jobs dip in region

The seven-county Hudson Valley region shed 22,100 private-sector jobs in the 12-month period ending in February, a 3.1 percent decrease from a year ago, the state Labor Department reported.

The labor market region includes Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties.

The construction industry accounted for almost one in three jobs lost in the region”™s private sector. About one in six construction jobs were eliminated here over the past year, a 16.5 percent decline, said Johny Nelson, labor market analyst at the state Labor Department in White Plains.

Only the educational and health services sectors showed employment gains for the one-year period, adding 2,500 jobs to a private-sector labor market that totaled 688,500 jobs at the end of February. The public sector too showed itself vulnerable to the recession, with 3,400 government jobs in the region shed since March 2009, the Labor Department reported.

February unemployment rates rose across the Hudson Valley region compared to a year ago, though most counties held steady or had slight increases in employment from January. February unemployment rates by county were:

• Westchester, 7.8 percent, up from 7.7 percent in January and 7.3 percent in February 2009;
• Rockland, 7.5 percent, unchanged from January and up from 6.8 percent a year ago;
• Putnam, 7.3 percent, down from 7.4 percent in January and up from 6.6 percent in February 2009;
• Dutchess, 8.3 percent, down from 8.4 percent in January and up from 7.7 percent a year ago;
• Orange, 8.7 percent, up from 8.6 percent in January and 7.9 percent a year ago;
• Ulster, 8.6 percent, down from 8.8 percent in January and up from 8 percent a year ago;
• Sullivan, 10.5 percent, up from 10.3 percent in January and 10 percent in February 2009.

The Putnam-Rockland-Westchester labor market had 52,200 unemployed workers in February, up slightly from January. The tri-county region added 2,600 residents to the unemployment rolls since February 2009, a 5.2 percent increase. The region had 627,900 workers employed as of February, a 3.1 percent decrease from a year ago.

The Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown labor market had 27,600 unemployed workers in February, up less than 1 percent from January. The tri-city region added 2,200 workers to the unemployment rolls since February 2009, an 8.7 percent increase. The region”™s employed labor force of 294,500 workers in February was 2.1 percent less than the employment level a year earlier.

The state”™s unemployment rate was 9.3 percent in February, down slightly from January. February unemployment statewide was up from 8.2 percent a year ago.

The Labor Department said the state has lost 321,900 private-sector jobs since April 2008, when the private-sector job count peaked. That is about 80 percent of the net jobs added between 2003 and 2008.

Peter A. Neenan, director of the state Labor Department research and statistics division, noted the state has added jobs for two consecutive months and its unemployment rate has leveled off in 2010. “However, following previous recessions, it has taken the state about five years, on average, to regain all of the jobs lost during a downturn,” he said.