Unemployment in the Rochester area hit 8 percent in January, up from 6.7 percent in December. It's the highest since the state labor department began keeping track, says a spokeswoman for the department.
The heaviest job losses came in manufacturing, which shed 3,500 jobs from January 2008 to January 2009, and in retail, which cut 1,300 jobs over the same time period.
The typical unemployment rate for January is between 4.2 to 6.4 percent, the spokeswoman said. The rate for January 2008 was 5.7 percent.
Rochester is below the national unemployment average, which is 8.5 percent.
Comments for "ECONOMY: New unemployment figures out " (1)
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Tom Shevlin said on Mar. 08, 2009 at 4:24pm
I wonder how dire the situation really is. Do the unemployment figures keep track of those whose benefits have expired and are now on welfare or homeless or are they dropped from the jobless count because they no longer count?
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