The Rochester area unemployment rate fell in March to 4.9 percent, down from 5.1 percent in February and down from 5.7 percent a year ago.
That’s according to new numbers from the NYS Labor Department, and market analyst Tammy Marino says that latest figure is the lowest it has been for March in quite a while.
“Historically the unemployment rate for the month of March tends to average around 6 percent, and currently we’re standing at 4.9 percent, so we’re considerably below that long-term historical average, so certainly it continues to point to the fact that the local job market continues to improve.”
But lately the job growth figures for the Rochester metro have turned negative; The latest numbers released last week showed a drop of 2,400 private sector jobs in March compared to last year.
Marino believes that change from the recent positive numbers may be due to a change in the way the job numbers are compiled.
