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Rochester metro unemployment rate falls to 4.8 percent

 Downtown Rochester skyline view.
Max Schulte
/
WXXI News
Downtown Rochester skyline view.

New  numbers on unemployment levels around New York State show the Rochester metro area with a 4.8 unemployment rate in March.  That compares to 5.4 percent in February, and 4.9 percent in March of last year.

The NYS Labor Department did say recently  that the Rochester area lost 3,900  private sector jobs in March compared to a year ago, but state labor analyst Tammy Marino says that more people should be finding work in the coming months.

“Moving forward, we can expect hiring, especially in many of our seasonal industries, construction, leisure, retail, but it’s also the time of year when we begin to see hiring overall picking up.”

The March unemployment rate in the Rochester area was at its lowest level in a decade.  Statewide, the March unemployment rate for the state overall was 4.3 percent.

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.