Unemployment rises in Mid-Hudson, Catskills

Ulster was the only area county that didn’t have a higher jobless rate in November than a year earlier.

Unemployment rates were generally higher last month than in November 2018 in counties across the Mid-Hudson Valley and Catskills, according to state Department of Labor data released Tuesday.

It was the fourth month in a row that joblessness in the region was higher than a year earlier after a lengthy period of declines. The unemployment rates remained low, however, with no local county exceeding 4.1 percent joblessness.

Ulster County had an November 2019 jobless rate of 3.2 percent, unchanged from November 2018, the labor department said. Ulster was the only county in the region that didn’t have a higher unemployment rate than a year earlier.

Dutchess County’s jobless rate last month was 3.2 percent, up from 3 percent a year earlier.

Elsewhere in the region, according to the state labor office, unemployment rates in November 2019 were:

• 3.9 percent in Greene County, up from 3.8 percent in November 2018.

• 2.7 percent in Columbia County, up from 2.6 percent a year earlier. (Despite the uptick, Columbia County’s jobless rate last month was the lowest among the state’s 62 counties, as often is the case.)

• 3.4 percent in Orange County, up from 3.3 percent. • 3.6 percent in Sullivan County, up from 3.5 percent.

• 4.1 percent in Delaware County, up from 3.7 percent.

The highest jobless rate in the state last month was 6.7 percent in Hamilton County, in the Adirondacks.

The statewide unemployment rate in November 2019 was 3.6 percent, up from 3.5 percent in November 2018.