Westchester Helps NY Gain Private Sector Jobs

Written by LANNING TALIAFERRO (Patch Staff)

In September, New York state added 11,400 private sector jobs.

That’s a 0.1 percent growth rate, moving the state’s workforce to a total 7,821,700.

“Moreover, the state’s unemployment rate continued its recent downward trend, dropping to 5.1%, its lowest level since April 2008,” said Bohdan M. Wynnyk, Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics.

However, five metro areas in the state – Watertown-Fort Drum (-1.6%), Binghamton (-1.2%), Dutchess-Putnam (-1.1%), Elmira (-0.6%) and Ithaca (-0.6%) – lost private sector jobs between September 2014 and September 2015.

The Orange-Rockland-Westchester county region gained 4,900 private sector jobs, an increase if just 0.8 percent. The region did not make this month’s list of the fastest growing.

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Public sector jobs continue to disappear. From September 2014 to September 2015, Orange-Rockland-Westchester lost 800 and Dutchess-Putnam lost 300 government jobs. In the past 12 months, New York state lost 2,400 government jobs.

The State’s private sector job count is based on a payroll survey of 18,000 New York employers conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly payroll employment estimates are preliminary and subject to revision as more data becomes available the following month. The federal government calculates New York’s unemployment rate based partly upon the results of the Current Population Survey, which contacts approximately 3,100 households in New York State each month.