The unemployment rate in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area is now the highest of any large metropolitan region in the state outside New York City.
The Department of Labor reported the local January jobless rate was 7.8 percent, up 1.3 percent from 6.5 percent in December of last year and up 1.1 percent from 6.7 percent last January.
Officials said it is not uncommon for the unemployment rate to spike in January following traditional seasonal hirings in December around the holiday season. A recent comparison, however, could not be made as the labor department is revising employment figures for the period of 2000-2002.
The number of private sector jobs in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metro has decreased by 5,900 or 1.3 percent in the past year, the most among any upstate region.
Rochester, which lost 2,500 private sector jobs in the past year, had a January unemployment rate of 7 percent, compared with 5.7 in December and 6.5 in January 2003.
In Jamestown, the number of private sector jobs has increased by 400 or 0.9 percent in the past year, though the area's unemployment rate was 8 percent last month, up from 6.7 in December and 6.8 in January 2003.
The statewide unemployment rate was up slightly to 6.5 percent in January from 6.3 percent in December, matching the figure from a year ago.
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