ALBANY—The New York State Department of Labor’s latest unemployment data details the devastation caused by the Novel Coronavirus to the New York State economy.
From April 2019 to April 2020, the state’s private sector employment count decreased by 1,834,800. In April 2020, the number of private sector jobs in the state was 6,467,600. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased from 4.1% to 14.5% in April 2020.
The April 2020 unemployment rate for the Hudson Valley region was 14.2%. That was up from 4.0% in March 2020 and from 3.3% in April 2019.
In April 2020, the highest unemployment rate within the region was recorded in Orange County with a 15.6% jobless rate, followed by Ulster County (14.6%), Westchester County (14.1%), Putnam County (14.1%), Dutchess County (14.1%), Rockland County (13.4%) and Sullivan County (13.1%).
In April 2020, there were 156,200 unemployed in the Hudson Valley region, up from 45,600 in March 2020 and up from 37,100 in April 2019. Year-over-year in April 2020, the Hudson Valley labor force decreased by 37,900 or 3.3%, to 1,096,800.
The region’s April 2020 unemployment rate of 14.2% is the highest in the history of the current series dating back to 1990.
The Hudson Valley region’s April 2020 unemployment rate at 14.2% is ranked third among the 10 Labor Market Regions in New York State, trailing only the Capital Region (12.9%), and the Southern Tier Region (13.9%).
The Hudson Valley was followed by the Mohawk Valley region at 14.5%, New York City region (14.6%), Finger Lakes region (14.9%), North Country (15.3%), Central New York (16.0%), the Long Island region (16.0%) and the Western New York region (18.6%).