From UticaOD.com (NY):

Unemployment rate creeps upward in region

Anthony Bell of Utica has been looking for work for about a year. But so far, nothing has turned up.

Bell, 51, worked for TECT Utica in Whitestown for 18 years before being laid off three years ago. He did a stint working on a dredge barge in the canal over the summer of 2008, but the work was just seasonal, and he needs something full-time…

But statistics released Thursday from the state Department of Labor paint an uncertain picture for Bell and thousands like him who are unemployed in the Mohawk Valley….