Orleans unemployment rate falls to 6.0%

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 23 October 2014 at 12:00 am

Orleans County’s unemployment dropped from 7.5 percent in September 2013 to 6.0 percent last month, according to the State Labor Department.

The 6.0 percent was down from 6.9 percent in August. The county’s rate is still slightly higher than the state average of 5.6 percent. (The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.2 percent in September, the lowest level since October 2008, according to the Department of Labor.)

In Orleans County, there were 1,100 unemployed people looking for work in September, compared to 17,000 in the workforce. A year earlier, there were 400 more people working in Orleans County – 17,400. There were also 1,400 unemployed looking for jobs, according to the DOL.

Fifteen of the 62 counties in the state have unemployment rates at 6.0 or higher. Bronx has the highest unemployment rate in the state at 8.5 percent.

Orleans, even with its improvement from a year ago, still has the highest rate in Western New York. Genesee County, at 4.8 percent, has the lowest rate in WNY. Hamilton County, at 3.8 percent, has the lowest rate in the state.