The Daily Freeman is reporting unemployment rates in Mid-Hudson and Catskills counties were markedly lower in February than during the same month a year earlier, the state Department of Labor announced, Tues., Apr. 1. All rates dropped by at least 1.2 percentage points. In February, the unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in Columbia County, down from 7.9 percent a year before. In Greene County, the jobless rate was 8.1 percent, down from 9.9 percent during the same month in 2013. Dutchess County's unemployment rate in February was the 10th lowest among the state’s 62 counties, the department said. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.