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Rochester Unemployment Rate Falls In February

The Rochester area unemployment rate fell in February. Officials say it's part of a positive trend.

The unemployment rate for the Rochester metro in February was six percent, down from 6.9 percent at this time last year. State Labor Analyst Tammy Marino says this area has seen steady growth in the job market over the last several years.

"Unemployment rate's still slightly elevated from where we were before the recession, but again it is the lowest level for the month of February since before the onset of the recession."

Also this week, Paychex released its latest Small Business Index. CEO Marty Mucci  says nationally, there was a small decrease in its employment index over the last month, which he says was likely due to the rough winter weather.

"Weather slows down construction, I think people stay inside, they just don't spend as much, they're not going to restaurants they're not going out and doing discretionary spending, so we think that will come back."

The Paychex index does show that overall, small business employment in the northeast and Mid - Atlantic States has lagged other parts of the country.

Last week, the NYS Labor Department said the Rochester area saw a gain of 3,400 private sector jobs in February 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.