The Daily Freeman is reporting unemployment in the Mid-Hudson Valley and Catskills were lower in July than during the same month a year ago, according to data released by the state Department of Labor, Tue., Aug. 23. Columbia County’s 3.5 percent jobless rate last month was the lowest in the region and the second lowest in the state, down from 3.9 percent in July 2015. In Greene County, the unemployment rate was 4.6 percent last month, down from 5.5 percent one year before. The jobless rate likewise decreased in Dutchess, Ulster, Delaware and Sullivan counties. The statewide unemployment rate in July was 5 percent.