ALBANY – All counties in the Hudson Valley saw declines in their unemployment rates during the 12-month period ending in July. The July unemployment rate for the Hudson Valley region was 4.3 percent, the lowest July since 2007.
Perhaps most significant is Sullivan County where joblessness dropped 0.9 percent down to 4.2 percent in July, compared to 5.1 percent one year earlier. During the height of the Great Recession, Sullivan was facing double-digit unemployment rates.
Greene County tied Sullivan with a drop in unemployment of 0.9 percent, going from 5.5 percent in July 2015 to 4.6 percent this July.
Unemployment rates dropped by 0.7 percent in Ulster, Orange, and Rockland counties, while rates fell by 0.6 percent in Dutchess and Putnam counties. Unemployment fell by 0.5 percent in Columbia County, the county with the second lowest percentage of joblessness in the state this July. Only Hamilton County, with 3.0 percent unemployment was lower.
Dutchess, Rockland and Sullivan counties were tied for 12th place statewide
in the July rankings while Westchester was 17, Ulster was 22, and Greene
was 30.
