What County Has the Highest Unemployment in the Hudson Valley?

Unemployment is up across the country, and the Hudson Valley is not spared from that.

Westfair Online reports that new data has been released from the U.S. Department of Labor regarding unemployment. The total number of people unemployed over 23 million. While still incredibly high, this is actually down from the 24 million that were unemployed the previous week from which this data was released. This data covers through October 3, 2020. Currently, Hawaii, California, and Nevada have the highest unemployment rates in the U.S. New York State ranked ninth for the highest unemployment rate.

But right here in the Hudson Valley, unemployment is also a real issue. According to Westfair Online, the Hudson Valley had an unemployment rate of 6.5% in September 2020. This is lower than the New York State rate, which is 7.7%. New York City's unemployment rate is 13.9%. This rate is also lower compared to the August unemployment rate, which was 10.4%. However, in September 2019, the unemployment rate was 3.6%.

When taking an even deeper dive into the data, we are able to see which Hudson Valley county has the highest unemployment rate. Westfair Online compared the unemployment rates of Orange, Rockland, Dutchess, Putnam, Sullivan, and Westchester County. For the Hudson Valley, the highest unemployment rate is in Westchester County, part of the lower Hudson Valley.

Westfair Online reports that Westchester County had an unemployment rate of 7%. Sullivan County had the second-highest with a 6.6% unemployment rate. Rockland County followed with 6.5%, then Orange County had 6.4%. Dutchess County had an unemployment rate of 5.8%. Putnam County had the lowest unemployment rate in the Hudson Valley with 5.6%.