Labor Department Releases Preliminary May Unemployment Rates

The New York State Labor Department has released preliminary local unemployment rates for May and it's good news for the Utica-Rome area.

The area's  jobless rate last month was 7.7%.

That's down a full percentage point from May of last year.

Meanwhile, the state's private sector job count increased by more than 104,000 from May of 2012 to May of this year.

The state unemploymenrt rate was 7.6% in May.