By Mark Scott
Albany, NY – There was a significant jump Buffalo-Niagara's unemployment rate in January.
It's yet another indication of the area's struggling economy. The state Labor Department reported Tuesday that January's unemployment increased to 6.8 percent from the December figure of 5.6 percent.
Unemployment is usually higher in January following the end of holiday hiring in the retail sector. But this January's rate was a full percentage point higher compared to the same month in 2001.
The Labor Department report also stated that private sector employment dropped 1.1 percent over the course of the last year. A total of 4,800 jobs in Western New York were lost.
Statewide, the number of private sector jobs also declined, the first such drop since 1992. Labor analysts say the "lingering effects of the World Trade Center attacks and the national recession" caused the decline.