Albany jobless claims hit 18-year low

Number of workers spikes after robust job growth in region

Unemployment in the Capital Region fell to an 18-year low for February, the state Labor Department reported Tuesday. The 3.9 percent rate was the lowest for the month since 2001, when just 3.7 percent of the workforce was idled.

Last year, 4.9 percent of the local workforce was unemployed.

The number of people employed — 433,900 — is the most for February since figures were collected beginning in 1990, said state labor markets analyst Kevin Alexander.

Job growth in the Capital Region has been robust lately, boosting the number of people employed by 9,000 over the year through February, although the figures are preliminary. Alexander said that gain was a record for February.

“Through the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, the Albany-schenectady-troy area has seen good strong job growth,” Alexander said. The growth has been broad-based, with sectors from leisure and hospitality, retail and health care to construction and professional and business services also showing gains, he added.

The lowest unemployment rates among the state’s metros were found in Ithaca, at 3.6 percent, Dutchess-putnam and Nassau-suffolk, at 3.7 percent each, and Orangerockland-westchester, at 3.8 percent.

Locally, Albany and Saratoga counties each had 3.7 percent unemployment rates, while Rensselaer and Schenectady counties were at 4.1 percent. In Schoharie County, the unemployment rate was 5.9 percent