New York's Unemployment Rate Drops Slightly To End 2017

ROCHESTER (WXXI) - The unemployment rate in New York State edged slightly downward in December 2017. New York had a 4.6 percent unemployment rate, down a tenth of a percent from the previous month. The New York State Department of Labor says that the private sector job count in the state rose by 111,700 or 1.4 percent. The private sector job count in the Rochester metro fell by 2,800 for December compared to December of 2017.  That has been a trend for much of the last year or so. The only metro area to lose more jobs last December was the Buffalo area, which saw its private sector job count fall by 4,900. The unemployment rates for individual metro areas in the state will be released next week. 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. 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.