Chautauqua County’s unemployment rate has jumped to 15.5% in April, the latest indicator in how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the county’s workforce.

The state Labor Department on Wednesday released its monthly unemployment statistics. The rate jumped from the 6.1% reported for Chautauqua County in April.

From April 2019 to April 2020, the State’s private sector employment count decreased by 1,834,800. In April 2020, the number of private sector jobs in the state was 6,467,600. The state’s private sector job count is based on a payroll survey of 18,000 New York employers, which is conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, the State’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased from 4.1% to 14.5% in April 2020.