December jobless rate 3.3% in region

ALBANY — The Capital Region finished 2018 with a 3.3 percent unemployment rate, the state Department of Labor reported Wednesday.

The December jobless report showed Albany and Saratoga counties having among the lowest unemployment rates in the state, at 3.2 percent each. Nearby Columbia County was lowest at 2.9 percent.

The Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area showed marked improvement from a year earlier. Jobless rates were 4.2 percent in December 2017 and 3.3 percent in December 2018, by the state’s preliminary estimates.

At the county level, Albany dropped from 4.0 percent in December 2017 to 3.2 percent in December 2018; Fulton from 6.1 to 4.8 percent; Montgomery from 6.0 to 4.6 percent; Rensselaer 4.3 to 3.3 percent; Saratoga 4.1 to 3.2 percent; Schenectady 4.5 to 3.6 percent; and Schoharie 5.3 to 4.0 percent.

By comparison, the state as a whole dropped from 4.4 to 3.8 percent over the same period and the nation dropped from 3.9 to 3.7 percent.