Private-Sector Job Growth Strong in the Hudson Valley: New Report

In July 2016, New York State’s private sector job count hit a new record high, according to preliminary figures released Thursday by the New York State Department of Labor.

Private sector employment increased by 36,200, or 0.5 percent, to 7,951,900. This represents the state’s largest monthly private sector job gain since September 2013, DOL officials said in their announcement.

“New York State’s labor market continued to advance in July 2016, reaching a new record high in private sector jobs. In addition, the state’s monthly gain in private sector jobs was New York’s largest in almost three years,” said Bohdan M. Wynnyk, Deputy Director of the New York State Department of Labor’s Division of Research and Statistics.

The Kingston area was the Hudson Valley's hottest metro area for job growth in the past 12 months, the DOL reported, with an increase of 3.3 percent (1,600 jobs). The Orange-Rockland-Westchester county region specifically added 13,000 jobs, a 2.2 percent increase, the DOL said. Dutchess-Putnam saw a 1.4 percent increase. All three metro areas continued to shed 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 State’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.