The latest unemployment data indicates a slight pause in the Rochester region's post-pandemic economic recovery for the first time since March 2021.
This past December there were 100 fewer private sector jobs in the Rochester metro area compared to a year earlier.
"It's a very small number when we're considering over 400,000 jobs in the area," said Kurt Meichtry, a senior economist for the New York state Department of Labor. "It's just that this is the first month we've been negative."
He added that a relatively low unemployment rate is masking some gaps in the local labor market.
"I think manufacturing is the big one, and more recently, leisure and hospitality is down a little bit," Meichtry said.
The health care and social assistance sector continues to drive local job growth. That is a national trend that is not unique to Rochester.
Metro Rochester's December unemployment rate was 3.7%, better than both the statewide and national rates of 4.4% and 4.1%.
The metro area, which includes Monroe, Genesee, Livingston, Ontario and Orleans counties, would need to gain another 7,600 jobs to match a pre-pandemic peak of 451,100 in July 2019.
"We're right there," Meichtry said. "We're just not over that hump yet."
