ALBANY COUNTY — On Thursday, the state’s labor department released data showing private-sector jobs over the month of August increased by 28,000, or 0.4 percent, to 7.5 million. This compares to a nationwide increase of 0.2 percent in August.

New York State’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased from 7.6 percent to 7.4 percent in August.

On Labor Day, federally expanded unemployment benefits had ended.

The over-the-year change in private sector jobs from last August to this August for the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area was 15,300 — an increase of 4.6 percent. For all of New York State, the increase was 5.4 percent.

Statewide, year over year, the sector with the biggest increase by far was leisure and hospitality at 27.8 percent, an increase of  167,900 jobs. In that same time frame, only two sectors lost jobs: Construction jobs are down 2.4 percent and finance jobs are down 1.3 percent.

An analysis of the data released Thursday evening by Edmund J. McMahon, founder and senior fellow at the Empire Center, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit think tank based in Albany, stated, “​​Private employment in New York — which actually had begun to sag during the year leading up to the pandemic — still is trending far below the nation as a whole.”

This is because, although the percentage of increase is higher for the state, New York started at a lower place than the nation for pandemic recovery.

The Empire Center analysis concludes that September should be a crucial month for gauging the strength of New York’s recovery. “If employment gains remain as weak as they have been relative to national trends, it could be a sign of deeper, persistent weakness in the state’s economy,” McMahon writes.

Also on Thursday, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the suspension of the state hiring freeze through the end of the fiscal year, meant to support COVID-19 recovery efforts.

The suspension came on the heels of Hochul’s release of the updated State Financial Plan, which calculates $2.1 billion in revenue above projections.

While agencies are now able to hire without first obtaining a waiver from the Division of the Budget, they must prioritize hiring for their core missions and continue to prudently manage their resources.

Lifting the hiring freeze through the end of the fiscal year will enable state agencies to grow their workforces after 

The number of state workers in executive agencies, between March 2020 and August 2021,  had declined from about 118,000 full-time employees to about 107,500 full-time employees, driven by attrition.

Newest numbers

 In his Thursday morning release, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy announced 106 new cases of COVID-19.

The county’s five-day average of new daily positive cases is now up to 73.8. Albany County’s most recent seven-day average of percent positive rates is now up to 4.5 percent, and the Capital Region’s rate remained at 4.4 percent.

There are now 461 active cases in the county, up from 424 on Wednesday. The number of county residents under mandatory quarantine increased to 913 from 804.

There were eight new hospitalizations since Wednesday, and 34 county residents are now hospitalized with the virus. There are currently seven patients in intensive-care units, down from nine yesterday.

The county’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 400.