Job picture remains strong

Westchester County and the lower Hudson Valley showed modest gains in the number of private-sector jobs in July compared with a year ago, even as unemployment rates in the region rose slightly from June, the state Department of Labor recently reported.

The state”™s seasonally adjusted private-sector job count increased by 5,500 from June, a 0.1 percent increase that matched the national job-growth rate in the private sector, said Nancy Dunphy, deputy commissioner for employment security in Albany.

Private-sector jobs in the state totaled 7,248,800, an increase of 87,500 jobs or 1.2 percent from July 2006. The state”™s growth rate for that period lagged slightly behind the national rate in July of 1.4 percent.

Nonfarm jobs overall in the state rose to 8,708,700 in the same one-year period, an increase of 95,600 jobs or 1.1 percent. Nationally, the number of nonfarm jobs in July increased by 1.3 percent from July 2006.

From July of the previous year, the Putnam-Rockland-Westchester market expanded to 587,500 nonfarm jobs, an increase of 6,400 jobs, or 1.1 percent. Of that total, private-sector jobs increased by 5,300, or 1.1 percent.

The July count of nonfarm jobs in the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown market was 257,300, an increase of 2,700 jobs, or 1.1 percent, from July 2006. Private-sector jobs increased by 2,100, or 1 percent.

The Kingston employment market had the highest percentage increase in July from the previous year, 2.2 percent, with 65,800 nonfarm jobs reported there. Private-sector jobs in the area increased by 1,300, or 2.6 percent.

State labor analysts said educational and health services in July added the largest number of jobs, 29,500, from the same month a year ago, with most of the increase in health care and social assistance.

Year-to-year July employment in the state also rose in professional and business services, with 24,500 more jobs; construction was up 15,500 jobs; leisure and hospitality up 12,800 jobs; financial activities up 11,300 jobs; trade, transportation and utilities up 9,300 jobs; and government up 8,100 jobs.

Manufacturing in July lost 14,200 jobs statewide from the same month in 2006, the largest-year-to year drop among employment categories. Those job losses were largely in the manufacture of nondurable goods, especially chemicals and apparel, with 13,100 fewer jobs.

The state”™s unemployment rate, after seasonal adjustment, rose from 4.7 percent in June to 4.9 percent in July. That was 0.3 percent higher than both the national unemployment rate in the same month and the state”™s rate in July 2006.

Not allowing for seasonal adjustment in statistical reporting, the state unemployment rate was 5 percent in July, compared to 4.5 percent in June and 4.9 percent in July 2006.

Throughout the lower Hudson Valley, job seekers in July fared slightly better at finding work than they did statewide. State Labor Department officials broke down the July unemployment rates in the region that are not seasonally adjusted as follows:

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ӢWestchester County, 3.9 percent, compared with 3.6 percent in June and 4 percent in July 2006;

ӢPutnam County, 3.5 percent, compared with 3.3 percent in June and 3.7 percent in July 2006;

ӢRockland County, 4 percent, compared with 3.7 percent in June and 4.1 percent in July 2006;

ӢOrange County, 4.4 percent, compared with 4.2 percent in June and 4.5 percent in July 2006;

ӢDutchess County, 4 percent, compared with 3.9 percent in June and 4.1 percent in July 2006;

ӢKingston area, 4.4 percent, compared with 4.1 percent in June and 4.5 percent in July 2006.