Hudson Valley Jobs Scene Looks Positive Post-Pandemic

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — The number of people in the region holding jobs rose and local unemployment rates for June 2021 continued to decline, according to preliminary findings the New York State Department of Labor released Tuesday.

The county-by-county unemployment rate in June:

• Dutchess County: 4.9 percent
• Orange: 5.2
• Putnam: 4.7
• Rockland: 4.8
• Ulster: 5.0
• Westchester: 5.2

That continues the 2021 improvement trend. In January, the unemployment rate by county was 6.1 percent in Dutchess, 6.6 percent in Orange, 5.8 percent in Putnam, 6.1 percent in Rockland, and 6.7 percent in Ulster and in Westchester. SEE ALSO: HV Coronavirus: New Jobs Data Show The Before And After

In the three metro areas that make up the mid and lower Hudson region, the Labor Department counted 1,037,300 residents as employed compared with 969,000 during the pandemic June.

Unemployment rates have been cut in half; the greatest decline came in the Rockland-Orange-Westchester metro area.

New York State’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased from 7.8 percent in May to 7.7 percent in June 2021.

The estimate of the number of unemployed includes all persons who had no employment during the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month), were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week.

Jobs data are obtained from a separate joint federal-state survey of business establishments. The survey, called the Current Employment Statistics of Establishments, has a sample size of 18,000 establishments in New York State. It excludes self-employed workers, agricultural workers, unpaid family workers and domestic workers employed by private households. This data represents a count of jobs by place of work.