| Private-sector
jobs in New York City, seasonally adjusted, fell by 14,000 in February,
the fifth consecutive month of job losses. As a result, the cumulative
loss since September 2001 was 98,000, Comptroller William C. Thompson,
Jr. announced today. Unemployment, also seasonally adjusted, rose
to 7.2 percent in February from 7.1 percent in January, and was considerably
higher than the rate of 5.3 percent in March 2001. The seasonal adjustments
to payroll jobs were made by the NYC Comptroller's Office based on
unadjusted preliminary February numbers released today by the New
York State Department of Labor, which also released revised figures
for January 2002. We now have a loss for January and February as a
result of the revised numbers.
"Despite the fact that the national economy shows improvement,
our analysis indicates that the City of New York has not shared
in a national rebound of jobs," said Thompson. "The City
continued to lose jobs in February while national job rates showed
an annualized increase of 0.6 percent."
Monthly Year-over-Year Changes 2000-2001
Year-over-year comparisons of monthly job losses since September
2001 show that the decline in NYC jobs has been three to four times
as great percentage-wise compared to national figures. (See Chart
A.) On a year-over- year basis NYC jobs fell 3.6 percent in February,
higher than the 3.5 percent in January. U.S. jobs on the other hand
fell much less, by 1.0 percent in February, and 0.9 percent in January.
(As already noted, the month-over-month figures show an increase
in jobs for the nation.)
Chart A. Monthly Payroll-Jobs Growth, NYC and the U.S., Year-over-Year,
Percent Change, Jan. 00-Feb. 02
Data Source: NYS and U.S. Departments of Labor. February 2002 data
are preliminary.
Civilian Employment (Household Survey)
Civilian employment, the number of NYC residents with jobs, fell
by 2,200 in February, for a net cumulative loss since September
2001 of 36,100 working New Yorkers, following an unprecedented October
drop of 42,200.
The fall in employment was accompanied by a February increase of
2,000 unemployed and a labor-force decline of 200. The unemployment
rate therefore rose to 7.2 percent after a small dip in January.
Industry-by-Industry Job Numbers
The City's loss of 14,000 private-sector jobs in February is the
net of a 4,800-job increase in government jobs and an overall increase
of 9,200 jobs. The
government job growth was entirely at the local level (City, MTA
and other local-government agencies), with a growth of 5,700 jobs
in February after declines in the previous two months; Federal and
state jobs based in the City declined in February.
Of the private-sector jobs, the February declines were most serious
in manufacturing, securities and business services, but occurred
across the board in every sector except four -- retail, insurance,
bars and restaurants and social services, which all showed small
increases. Job losses were in manufacturing
(-2,200 jobs), construction (-400), transportation and utilities
(-1,400), wholesale trade (-1,000), real estate (-900), banking
(-800), securities (-2,300), health services (-1,000), business
services (-4,800), motion pictures and amusements (-500), law (-1,100)
and engineering and management (-100).
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