Even as the jobs picture has improved since the worst of the pandemic’s financial effects, unemployment rates in the Syracuse, Utica–Rome, Binghamton, Ithaca, and Elmira regions remained higher in January compared to January 2020, one of the final two months before the public-health crisis exploded. Bucking the trend was the Watertown–Fort Drum area, which posted a lower […]
Even as the jobs picture has improved since the worst of the pandemic’s financial effects, unemployment rates in the Syracuse, Utica–Rome, Binghamton, Ithaca, and Elmira regions remained higher in January compared to January 2020, one of the final two months before the public-health crisis exploded.
Bucking the trend was the Watertown–Fort Drum area, which posted a lower jobless rate in January than in the same month in 2020.
The figures were part of the New York State Department of Labor data for January that was released on March 16. The department was set to issue the February jobless figures on March 30.
Regional unemployment rates
The unemployment rate in the Syracuse metro area stood at 7.2 percent this January, up from 4.8 percent in January 2020.
The Utica–Rome region’s January rate hit 7.6 percent, up from 5 percent a year ago; the Binghamton metro area’s number was 7.3 percent, up from 5.5 percent; the Ithaca region’s rate rose to 5.3 percent from 3.7 percent; and the Elmira area posted 7.3 percent in January, up from 4.7 percent in the same month a year ago. In contrast, the Watertown–Fort Drum region’s jobless rate dipped to 7.1 percent in January from 7.3 percent in the year-prior month.
The local-unemployment data isn’t seasonally adjusted, meaning the figures don’t reflect seasonal influences such as holiday hires. The unemployment rates are calculated following procedures prescribed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state Labor Department said.
State unemployment rate
New York’s statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.8 percent in January, up from 8.7 percent in December and much higher than the 3.8 percent figure the state posted in January 2020, before the pandemic hit.
The 8.8 percent unemployment rate was also significantly higher than the U.S. jobless rate of 6.3 percent this January.
The federal government calculates New York’s unemployment rate partly based upon the results of a monthly telephone survey of 3,100 state households that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts.