New York state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped from 8.3 percent in May to 8.2 percent in June, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. It was the state's lowest unemployment rate since April 2009, when it was 8.1 percent.

The number of unemployed New Yorkers also dropped, from 806,200 in May to 798,600 in June, its lowest level since April 2009.

The New York economy lost 8,500 private-sector jobs (-0.1 percent) in June on a seasonally adjusted basis. It marked the state's second straight monthly decline. The total nonfarm job count in New York decreased by 22,500 (-0.3 percent) in June.

The change was due in large part to a sharp drop in federal jobs (-10,100) because many temporary Census workers left the payroll. The nonfarm job count tracks all jobs in the private and public sectors. It does not count the self-employed or farm workers.

"While we lost a small number of private-sector jobs in June 2010, New York's unemployment rate continued to show improvement," said Peter Neenan, director of the labor department's division of research and statistics. "Both the state's unemployment rate and the number of unemployed residents reached their lowest levels since April 2009."