Valley unemployment continued to rise in July

The north country’s jobless rates improved in July compared to the year before.

Unemployment rates rose in July for the city of Springfield and Greater Springfield as a whole, but statistics reported Tuesday show that labor markets in both have improved during the past year.

For the full list of unemployment rates for New York counties, visit the Department of Labor website. Kansas nonfarm jobs increased by 5,600 jobs, a 0.4 percent increase since July 2014.

George Sharpley, an economist for the state labor department, said 550 people joined the state labor force last month, with an nearly even split among the newly employed and those looking for work.

The least significant drop was in the Elmira area, where the unemployment fell just one percentage point: from 6.2 percent to 6.1 percent over the past year.

The number of unemployed residents, meanwhile, has been less consistent, falling in the first four months and then rising each of the last three. Randolph County ranked 43rd in the state last month for unemployment, down from 39th in the state in June. Over the past year, Indiana has added about 60,000 private sector jobs and a total of almost 292,000 jobs since July 2009, the low point of employment in the state.

Lewis County’s rate was 6.1 percent, down from 6.8 percent the year before. Non-farm jobs increased by 8,000 in July, as did private sector jobs.

The Albany metro area’s unemployment rate for July was down to 4.8 percent in 2015. Compared to July 2014, there are 313 fewer people in the labor force in Barton County.

“In northeast Indiana, our economy has been on the rebound”, she said. There were 67,149 continued claims in July, down from 81,504 the previous month and down from 73,127 in July 2014. Information on procedures for producing Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) estimates is available on the BLS website here.