The unemployment rates in several Hudson Valley counties in December 2021 fell by more than half from one year prior, with Columbia County posting one of the lowest jobless rates in the state.
Columbia County’s 2.2 percent unemployment rate in December tied it with Saratoga County and the metropolitan area of Ithaca for the lowest rate statewide, according to State Labor Department statistics. The Albany-Schenectady-Troy area had the second-lowest unemployment rate for metro areas, with 2.5 percent, down from 5.4 percent in December 2020.
Kingston also saw its year-over-year unemployment rate drop significantly, from 5.8 percent in December 2020 — year one of the pandemic — to 2.7 percent one month ago.
Columbia wasn’t the only regional county seeing an unemployment rebound in a year’s time. All other counties in the Hudson Valley — Dutchess, Ulster, Putnam, Orange — also reported rates that dropped to 2.8 percent or lower, less than half than what they were in December 2020.
Greene County’s 3.0 percent unemployment rate last month makes it the only Hudson Valley county with a rate above 2.8 percent.
The region’s low overall unemployment rate be credited to a combination of more jobs as well as people leaving the labor force, noted Kevin Alexander, a labor market analyst for the state Department of Labor.
“We’re 1,000 jobs down from last year and we have 600 people on unemployment,” said F. Michael Tucker, President and CEO of Columbia Economic Development Corporation of the unemployment picture in Columbia County. “We know a number of people left the job market for a variety of reasons related to COVID, related to childcare, related to a desire to change positions or a need to because their jobs were eliminated or changed because of COVID.”
This means several Hudson Valley employers are still looking to hire.
“About 78 percent of businesses in Columbia County have less than 10 employees,” said Tucker. “So you’re looking at a host of small businesses trying to stay afloat, and make products and serve customers without the necessary staff, which puts added pressure on the people who are still working.”
To get people back into the labor market, the keys could be in COVID rates flattening for good — to the point where the coronavirus simply becomes like the flu — and workplace changes, Tucker said.
“Hopefully then people will find the return of some stability in their life that they’ll get back into the job market. At the same time, I think employers understand that things have changed to a point where they have to revisit wages, benefits, flexibility in the workplace itself, and adapt to the cultural shift that came with the COVID experience.”
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Jobless rate drops across Hudson Valley, 2.2% in Columbia - Albany Times Union
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