Westchester County Has One of the Lowest Unemployment Rates in the Hudson Valley

The New York State Department of Labor today released preliminary local area unemployment rates for December 2014—and again, in December Westchester County had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state.

Barely—its December unemployment rate of 4.6 percent put it last on the labor department’s Top 10 list.

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Unemployment rate highlights in December 2014:

• The counties in New York State with the lowest unemployment rates include:
  • Tompkins County (3.5%)
  • Nassau County (4.1%)
  • Putnam County (4.1%)
  • Rockland County (4.3%)
  • Saratoga County (4.3%)
  • Albany County (4.4%)
  • Columbia County (4.5%)
  • Dutchess County (4.6%)
  • Suffolk County (4.6%)
  • Westchester County (4.6%)
  
  

Taken together, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties had an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, a drop from December 2013, when the combined jobless rate was 5.1 percent.

The tri-county area was only slightly behind Long Island. In December 2014 the combined unemployment rate for Nassau and Suffolk counties was 4.4 percent.

New York City’s rate dropped significantly, to 6.4 percent from 7.5 percent in December 2013.

Rates are calculated following procedures prescribed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state’s unemployment rate relies in part on the results of the Current Population Survey, which contacts approximately 3,100 households in New York State each month.