Unemployment for Orleans at 3.2%, up slightly from year ago

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 October 2023 at 7:20 pm

The unemployment rate in Orleans County was at 3.2 percent in September, up slightly from the 3.1 percent a year earlier, the state Department of Labor reported.

The state Department Labor reports 16,800 were working in the county in both September 2022 and 2023, but the number of unemployed increased from 500 to 600 (numbers are rounded to the nearest hundred).

The unemployment rates in Orleans County so far in 2023 include 4.8 percent in January, 4.3 percent in February, 4.0 percent in March, 2.9 percent in April, 3.1 percent in May, 3.3 percent in June, 3.5 percent in July, 4.0 percent in August and 3.2 percent in September.

Here is how that 3.2 percent for Orleans compares to other nearby counties in September:

Genesee, 2.7 percent
Livingston, 2.9 percent
Wyoming, 2.9 percent
Monroe, 3.4 percent
Niagara, 3.4 percent
Erie, 3.4 percent

The national unemployment rate is up too from 3.3 percent in September 2022 to 3.6 percent last month. State-wide the rate moved from 3.6 percent in September 2022 to 4.0 percent last month.

The U.S. has 2.67 million more people working in that period for 161.67 million total, while New York has 88,000 more employed from September 2022 to 9.35 million total last month, according to the DOL.