New York's unemployment rate increased to 15.7 percent last month, despite the private sector adding jobs to the economy, the state Department of Labor on Thursday announced. 

In New York City, which had been an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, more than one in five people are unemployed, a rate of 20.4 percent. 

The joblessness rate was a hike from a 14.5 percent rate in May and came as the state was gradually allowing businesses, offices, and other public spaces to slowly reopen. 

New York City remains uniquely exposed to the economic havoc wrought by the pandemic, with many jobs coming from service sector businesses in hospitality and tourism. 

The Department of Labor said the spike in unemployment could potentially be due to "a combination of the use of different data sources for the two figures, the use of statistical regression models to determine the unemployment rate, a growing labor force, and the impact of out-of-state workers, among other factors."

The increase also came as private-sector industries added 296,400 jobs in June.