The city’s unemployment rate dropped last month from 8.5 percent to 8.1 percent, the lowest in five years, according to the state Labor Department. The number of jobs in the city passed the 4 million mark for the first time since 1969. State unemployment fell from 7.4 percent to 7.1 percent. But around 100,000 people statewide lost unemployment benefits because Congress let federal emergency unemployment compensation expire. The national unemployment rate was 6.7 percent.

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