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The Capital Region's unemployment rate since the start of the recession.

The Capital Region's unemployment rate was 7 percent in October, according to NYS Department of Labor data released today. That's up from 4.9 percent during the same period last year. It's basically unchanged from last month.

The labor department reports that the number of nonfarm jobs has decreased by 12,100 (2.7 percent) and the number of private sector jobs has decreased by 9,200 (2.7 percent) in the region over the last year.

The Capital Region is still doing better than both the state and country as a whole. The overall unemployment rate for New York State was 9 percent in October (8 percent everywhere except NYC) and 10.2 percent for the US.

We've updated our 10-year graph of Capital Region unemployment -- it really gives you perspective on how unusual the current labor market is.

The federal government reported last month that the national economy has begun growing again (well, GDP has).

Job growth often lags GDP growth, though. During the last national recession, the Capital Region's unemployment rate didn't start falling until three months after the recession ended. The state labor department reported that NYS lost 15,300 non-farm jobs last month.

Big chart notes: 10 year data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics -- except for this year's data, which is from NYS DOL. Recession data from NBER. The figures were not seasonally adjusted.