Unemployment rates increase in region

Breaking with a longterm trend, unemployment rates in all Mid-Hudson and Catskills counties — and most of New York — were higher in November 2017 than they were a year earlier, the state Department of Labor said Wednesday.

The Ulster County jobless rate last month was 4.5 percent, up from 4.1 percent in November 2016, while the Dutchess County rate jumped from 3.9 percent to 4.3 percent, the department said.

Columbia County’s jobless rate in November 2017 was 3.6 percent — tied

for second lowest among the state’s 62 counties but slightly higher than Columbia’s 3.5 percent rate in November 2016.

In other local counties, according to the labor department, the unemployment rates last month were:

• 5.4 percent in Greene County, up from 4.8 percent in November 2016.

• 5.3 percent in Delaware County, up from 5 percent a year earlier.

• 4.6 percent in Orange County, up from 4.1 percent.

• 5.2 percent in Sullivan County, up from 4.6 percent.

The only counties that experienced a November-toNovember drop in their jobless rates were the five counties that make up New York City, and Lewis County, east of Watertown. The rates in Clinton and Seneca counties were unchanged.

The highest unemploy-

ment rate in the state last month was a whopping 9.9 percent in Hamilton County, in the Adirondacks. That was a full percentage point higher than the county’s November 2016 rate.

The statewide jobless rate last month was 4.5 percent, unchanged from November 2016, the labor department said.