Unemployment rates largely flat in April

The unemployment rates in Hudson Valley counties remained fairly constant in April compared to the same month last year.

Greene County was the only Mid-Hudson county with a declining rate of joblessness, going from 5.6 percent in April 2016 to 5.1 percent this April.

State Labor Department analyst John Nelson said there is nothing to worry about given the dips are small and this is just a one-month snapshot.

“The unemployment rate for the region stood at 4.1 percent,” Nelson said. “That is unchanged from the March data and it is up from 4.0 percent in April of last year. There were 46,200 people unemployed in the region, up from 46,100 in March of 2017 and up from 44,900 in April of 2016.”

Unemployment remained flat in Columbia County, at 3.6 percent; in Dutchess County, at 4 percent; in Rockland County, at 3.9 percent; and in Sullivan County, at 4.8 percent.

Unemployment increased slightly in Orange County, from 4.1 percent in April 2016 to 4.3 percent this April; in Putnam County, from 3.7 percent to 3.8 percent; in Ulster County, from 4.2 percent to 4.3 percent; and in Westchester County, from 3.9 percent to 4.1 percent.

Columbia County had the third-lowest unemployment rate in the state, behind Queens County and New York County. Putnam ranked ranged sixthlowest; Rockland, eighth; Dutchess, 10th; Westchester, 14th; Ulster, 17th; Sullivan 29th; and Greene County, 35th. There are 62 counties in New York state.

The Department of Labor reported last week

that employment grew in almost all Mid-Hudson and Catskills counties the 12-month period ending April 30. DISPLAY AND CLASSIFIED DISPLAY DEADLINES: Publication Date .................................. Copy to be in by: