Chenango's unemployment on par with state's low

NORWICH – In what analysts are saying could be a six-year low for the New York state unemployment rate in 2006, Department of Labor data shows that during the second half of the year, Chenango County kept pace with comparable figures to the statewide average.

“We’ve stayed pretty steady,” said Gary Waffle, the manager of the Chenango, Delaware, and Otsego Workforce office in Norwich.

Overall, without available data for December, the annual – yet to be seasonally adjusted – unemployment rate for the state so far has been 4.6 percent, with Chenango County at around 5.5 percent. However, from July on, Chenango County has averaged around a 4.6 percent rate, recouping from a January to June rough patch to almost match up with the state’s second-half average of 4.3 percent.