Westchester labor statistics are out for last December, and the picture is fairly rosy for the county, which, according to the New York State Department of Labor, rung in the new year with a 4.6 percent unemployment rate (the national rate is 5.6 percent). That figure ties Westchester for the third-lowest rate in the Hudson Valley region, on par with Dutchess County and slightly behind Rockland (4.3 percent) and Putnam (4.1 percent) counties.
Of all counties in New York State, Westchester ranks eighth. (In case you’re wondering, Tompkins County, home to Cornell University, boasts the lowest number, 3.5 percent.) Regionally speaking, New York State Department of Labor Analyst Johny Nelson had this to say: “Of the 10 labor market regions in New York State, the Hudson Valley region (4.7 percent) had the second-lowest unemployment rate in December 2014, trailing only the Long Island region (4.4 percent).”
Westchester’s 4.6 percent December unemployment figure caps a year of solid improvement in the labor market; unemployment stood at 5.2 percent in December 2013. The rate was also down on a month-to-month basis, falling 0.2 percentage points from November.
