Jobless rates tick up in all area counties

Unemployment rates across the Mid-Hudson and Catskills were slightly higher in December 2017 than a year earlier, the state Department of Labor reported Tuesday.

It was the second consecutive month in which the jobless rates in local counties were higher than in the corresponding month a year earlier.

The Ulster County unemployment rate last month was 4.4 percent, up from 4.3 percent in December 2016, while the Dutchess County rate ticked up from 4 percent to 4.1 percent, the labor department said.

Columbia County’s jobless rate in December 2017 was 3.8 percent — tied for third lowest among the state’s 62 counties but slightly higher than Columbia’s 3.6 percent rate in December 2016.

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

• 5.5 percent in Greene County, up from 5 percent in December 2016.

• 5.7 percent in Delaware County, up from 5.5 percent a year earlier.

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

• 5.3 percent in Sullivan County, up from 4.9 percent.

The highest unemployment rate in the state last month was a whopping 11.3 percent in Hamilton County, in the Adirondacks. That was 1.5 percentage points higher than the county’s December 2016 rate.

The statewide jobless rate last month was 4.4 percent, down slightly from 4.5 percent in December 2016, the labor department said.