Unemployment rate in Orleans for July lowest summer rate in nearly 20 years
The unemployment rate for Orleans County in July was 4.9 percent, which is the lowest summer unemployment rate in the county since 4.8 percent in July 2001, according to the NYS Department of Labor. (Click here to see a spreadsheet of the county rates since 1990.)
In July 2017, the unemployment rate in the county was 6.0 percent. As recently as July 2012, the rate was 10.0 percent.
There were 17,100 people working in Orleans in July, with 900 on unemployment. That is up from the 16,800 working in July 2017. That month there were 1,100 unemployed, according to the DOL.
The county’s labor force has shrunk by about 2,000 since 2001, when there were 20,000 in the labor force, compared to 18,000 this past July, according to the Department of Labor. Just five years ago there were 19,100 in the labor force in Orleans.
Statewide and in the county the unemployment rate has been going down. The state’s unemployment rate dropped from 4.5 percent in June to 4.3 percent in July.
The county’s current unemployment rate is slightly higher than the regional average. The Buffalo-Niagara Falls region dropped from 5.4 percent in July 2017 to 4.5 percent in July 2018. In Rochester, the rate is down from 5.1 to 4.3 percent.
Orleans also is higher than other neighboring counties, where the rates for July include: Genesee, 3.7; Wyoming, 3.8; Niagara, 5.0; Monroe, 4.4; Livingston, 4.1; and Erie, 4.4.
Columbia County has the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 3.1 percent while the 6.1 percent in the Bronx is the highest. St. Lawrence County has the highest rate upstate at 5.9 percent.
