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Rochester Metro Unemployment Falls To 4.7 Percent

The unemployment rate in the Greater Rochester area fell in July to 4.7 percent;  that was down from  5.3 percent in July of  2015.  The unemployment rate for June of this year  was 4.3 percent.

State labor analyst Tammy Marino says a big reason for the year-over-year drop in the rate has been steady job growth in the private sector. 

“Employers have been hiring at a fairly good clip throughout the past seven years and with that, the local unemployment rate fell to its lowest July level in nearly a decade.“

But she says manufacturing has not seen the same kind of growth that some other parts of the local economy have experienced.

“One of the weaker sectors that we have is our manufacturing sector, the pace of layoffs in that sector did pick up somewhat in July and this is in contrast to 2015 when we saw employment in this sector stabilizing quite a bit."

Last week the labor department reported  that private sector jobs in the Rochester area grew  by 800 compared to this time last year

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.