The unemployment rate in the Buffalo Niagara region inched down to 8.3 percent in October,

but the region continues to lose jobs at its fastest pace in nearly eight years, the state

Labor Department said today.

With the region shedding three of every 100 jobs over the last year, the recession has

claimed a total of 16,900 jobs since October 2008.

The bright spot in the labor department's report was that the region's unemployment rate

inched down to 8.3 percent from 8.4 percent in September. But even that bit of upbeat news had

a darker side, because jobless rates typically decline from September to October as

school-related hiring ramps up, and the drop this year was less than half the size of the

average decline over the last 20 years.

The 8.3 percent unemployment rate in October was the highest for that month since the

mid-1980s, when the region was reeling from the demise of the local steel plants.

The job losses in the Buffalo Niagara region were the third-fastest among the state's 13

major metro areas, with only Glens Falls and Nassau-Suffolk counties shedding jobs more

rapidly.

The region is losing jobs faster than the state, which has shed 2.7 percent of its jobs

over the last year, but is faring better than the nation as a whole, where the decline in jobs

is running at a 4 percent annual rate.

The unemployment rate in Erie County slipped to 8.2 percent in October from 8.3 percent in

September. The jobless rate in Niagara County dipped to 8.6 percent last month from 8.8

percent in September.

Nearly four out of every 10 job losses came from local manufacturers and construction

firms, which have been hit especially hard by the recession and tight credit markets.

e-mail: drobinson@buffnews.com