January Job Growth Slow in Putnam County

The employment picture continues positive—barely—in Putnam and Dutchess counties.

In fact, over the past year, the Dutchess-Putnam metro area added 900 private sector jobs, an increase of .8 percent, according to the New York state Labor Department.

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Across the state, the education and health services sector saw the most job gains.

The revised labor force data show that the annual average unemployment rate fell from 7.7 percent in 2013 to 6.3 percent in 2014, statewide.

January’s statewide unemployment rate in New York stayed at 5.8 percent, its lowest monthly level since September 2008, according to preliminary figures released by the state.

“In January 2015, New York State’s economy continued to advance, reaching an all-time high private sector job count of more than 7.73 million. In addition, our state unemployment rate remained at its lowest level in more than six years,” said Bohdan M. Wynnyk, Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics.

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 partly based upon the results of the Current Population Survey, which contacts approximately 3,100 households in New York State each month.