Unemployment Reaches a Three Year Low in the Capital Region

The New York State Department of Labor’s data released in their monthly unemployment reports can show emerging trends. From February 2019 to March 2020 unemployment remained relatively flat, never exceeding 4.0% in the Capital Region. At the start of the pandemic in April 2020, unemployment skyrocketed to a high of 12.6% unemployment rate – a 215% increase from the prior month. The United States saw a similar spike in April 2020, increasing from 4.4% to 15%.

Starting in July 2020, unemployment began to decrease in both the United States and the Capital Region and ranged from 5.7% to 3.9% between September 2020 and 2021. From September 2021 to December 2022 unemployment in both the Capital Region and the United States continued to decrease. In 2022, Capital Region unemployment has remained below 4.0%, reaching a similar unemployment rate to pre-pandemic times. Unemployment from October 2022 to December 2022 is the lowest rate of unemployment since April 2019.