SPECTRUM NEWS VIDEO: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate has stood at 4.1 percent for the past five months. Meanwhile, the Syracuse Metropolitan area's rate was 6 percent for the month of January.

Le Moyne economics professor Ted Shepard said many factors go into that figure.

He said the area still hasn't recovered from manufacturing layoffs in the 90s and highly concentrated areas of poverty.

"They haven't found something to fill that void yet," said Shepard. "So the city has a very high poverty rate and even during times when the unemployment rate has come down the labor force participation rate has also gone down, so some more people have left the labor force," said Shepard.

In January of 2012, the Syracuse Metropolitan area's rate of unemployment was 9.5 percent.