Westchester's Jobless Rate Dropped in October

Written by LANNING TALIAFERRO (Patch Staff)

Unemployment rates in Rockland and Westchester counties were lower in October, but too high to put the counties back on the state’s list of lowest unemployment rates.

Neither made the state’s list of counties with the lowest unemployment rates last month, according to preliminary data released by the state Labor Department.

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Things are still better than last year. The Orange-Rockland-Westchester market had a 4.3 percent unemployment rate in October, the Labor Department said. In October 2014, the unemployment rate for Orange-Rockland-Westchester was 4.7 percent. It was 4.6 percent for the Dutchess-Putnam counties region.

In October, Westchester’s jobless rate was 4.3 percent and Rockland’s was 4.2 percent. Rockland had an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent in September 2015, while Westchester posted a rate of 4.7 percent.

Unemployment rate highlights in October 2015: The counties in New York State with the lowest unemployment rates included:

• Columbia County (3.5%)
• Tompkins County (3.6%)
• Saratoga County (3.8%)
• Albany County (4.0%)
• Nassau County (4.0%)
• New York County (4.0%)
• Ontario County (4.0%)
• Yates County (4.0%)
• Putnam County (4.1%)
• Queens County (4.1%)

Source: New York State Department of Labor