WPCNR ECONOMIA. From Johny Nelson, The NYS Department of Labor Statistics. January 21, 2010 UPDATED 10:30 P.M. E.S.T. (EDITED): The unemployment rate in White Plains held steady at 6.3% of the labor force in December, with 29,100 persons employed and 2,000 unemployed in a labor force of 31,100 persons. Westchester County unemployment moved up from 6.8% to 6.9%, with 454,000 persons employed in a workforce of 487,500, leaving 33,600 unemployed, according to New York State Department of Labor statistics. White Plains and Westchester fared better in employment stability than did the Hudson Valley as a whole.
Private sector employment in the Hudson Valley decreased 17,700 or 2.3 percent, to 741,500 for the 12-month period ending December 2009. Employment gains were limited to educational and health services (+4,900).
Job losses were centered in trade, transportation and utilities (-5,200), leisure and hospitality (-4,500), manufacturing (-4,000), professional and business services (-3,600), natural resources, mining and construction (-3,100), information (-1,200), and financial activities (-900). The government sector shed 1,500 jobs over the year.
Analyst's observation:
The regional job market continues to suffer from poor economic conditions as private sector jobs declined by 2.3 percent for the 12-month period ending in December 2009. The effects of the downturn are most apparent this month in the region’s leisure and hospitality sector, which recorded its steepest over-the-year job loss (-4,500) since July 1991.
