The Daily Freeman is reporting unemployment rates in the Mid-Hudson Valley and the Catskills were more than half a percentage point lower last month than during the same time in 2017, according to state Department of Labor data released August 21. In Greene County, the July 2018 jobless rate was 4.3 percent, down from 5 percent the previous year. In Columbia County unemployment decreased to 3.1 percent, down from 4.7 percent in July 2017. Columbia County's jobless rate was the lowest statewide, last month. According to the labor office the unemployment rate in Ulster County last month was 4 percent, down from 4.7 percent a year earlier. And in Dutchess County, it was 3.8 percent, down from 4.4 percent. The highest unemployment rate reported statewide last month was 6.1 percent in Bronx County. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.