Private sector employers in the seven-county Hudson Valley region added 8,500 jobs in March from a year ago, a 1.2 percent increase. The region”™s 6 percent unemployment rate last month was a 1 percent drop in jobless numbers from March last year, according to the state Department of Labor.
Johny Nelson, regional labor market analyst at the state Labor Department office in White Plains, said the region”™s 12-month private sector job growth through March was an improvement over 12-month job gains through March last year, when the private sector added 3,000 jobs, a 0.4 percent increase.
The Putnam-Rockland-Westchester labor market had a net gain in March of 2,800 private sector jobs from a year earlier, a 0.6 percent increase. Hiring in the tricounty market remained most active in education and health services, which added 4,400 jobs for the one-year period through March, a 3.7 percent increase from the previous year.
Education and health services also remained the top job generator for the Hudson Valley region in March, growing by 5,300 jobs from a year ago, a 2.8 percent increase.
Private sector job growth was slower last month in the Putnam-Rockland-Westchester market than in other parts of the Hudson Valley. The Kingston area in March led the region with 3.7 percent year-to-year job growth in its private sector, while the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown labor market had a 2.3 percent increase in private sector employment.
Rural Sullivan County was the only area in the region where private sector jobs declined in March from a year ago. The number of jobs with private employers dropped 2.7 percent.
Professional and business services companies last month added 1,900 jobs from a year ago in the Putnam-Rockland-Westchester market, a 2.6 percent increase. Nelson said the tricounty area accounted for two-thirds of that supersector”™s employment gains in the Hudson Valley.
Westchester County”™s unemployment rate dropped in March to 5.7 percent, down from 6.3 percent in February and 6.6 percent in March 2013.
Putnam County”™s 5.2 percent jobless rate in March was the second-lowest in the state, tied with Nassau County. Upstate Tompkins County led New York last month with a 4.4 percent unemployment rate.
Statewide, the private sector added 108,200 jobs from March 2013 through last month, a 1.5 percent increase, the Labor Department reported. The state”™s private sector job count in March held steady at 7,539,300, a record high for the month.
The statewide unemployment rate was 6.9 percent in March, a 0.1 percent increase from February. State officials said the slight uptick was due in part to New York”™s growing labor force, which expanded by 22,900 workers between February and March as more New Yorkers had confidence about finding a job.
