The latest monthly employment numbers from New York State show that the Rochester area gained 900 private sector jobs in November compared to November of last year.
State Labor Analyst Tammy Marino says we usually see some shifts in hiring in the fall.
"We begin to see this holiday hiring that brought on an additional thousand positions in the month of November, and that's also the time of year when we begin to see some weakness in construction as some of those projects begin to wrap up for the winter season."
Marino says the strongest areas for hiring were in higher education and health care, as well as in seasonal hiring for retail companies. She says that overall, this has been a pretty good year for job growth in this area.
"2014 once again we continued to move in a positive direction; on the downside, we're not really keeping up in terms of job growth with the rest of the state and nation, however once again we are continuing to post some of these just very consistent job gains.”
The statewide unemployment rate in New York dropped to 5.9 percent in November, down from 7.1 a year ago. The Rochester area unemployment rate will be released next week.
