The Daily Freeman is reporting the unemployment rates in the Mid-Hudson Valley and Catskills were substantially lower last month than a year earlier, continuing the trend of declines, according to recently released state Department of Labor data. Greene County had a December 2018 jobless rates of 4.1 percent, down from 5.6 percent in December 2017. And Columbia County had an unemployment rate of 2.9 percent, once again the lowest recorded statewide, a decrease from 3.8 percent in December 2017. In other counties, jobless rates in December 2018 were: 3 percent in Ulster County, down from 4 percent the previous year. In Dutchess County, the unemployment rate last month was 3.1 percent, a decrease from 4.1 percent in 2017. The highest unemployment rate in the state last month was 7.9 percent in Hamilton County, in the Adirondacks. The statewide jobless rate in last month was 3.8 percent. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.