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| THOMPSON:
NEW YORK CITY GAINED 7,300 JOBS IN APRIL - BUT UNEMPLOYMENT ROSE TO 7.7 PERCENT
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| New York City
Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. announced today that jobs in
New York City, seasonally adjusted, rose by 7,300 in April, the largest
monthly increase since September 2000. The seasonal adjustments to
payroll jobs were made by the New York City Comptroller's Office based
on unadjusted preliminary April numbers from the New York State Department
of Labor, which also released revised figures for March 2002.
Comptroller Thompson added that while the number of jobs appears to have increased, the New York State Department of Labor's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 7.5 percent to 7.7 percent, the highest it has been since December 1998. The rise in jobs was overshadowed by an even larger jump in the labor force, the number of people available to work, resulting in an increase in the rate of unemployment. Between December 2000 and April 2002, the City has lost 139,100 jobs, of which nearly two-thirds, or 91,500 jobs, were lost since September 2001. "It's a relief to have a respite from the string of monthly and quarterly job losses, but in no way is the City of New York out of the woods," Thompson said. "We have a cumulative loss of nearly 140,000 jobs in this recession and more than 90,000 since September. While the nation has been recovering for months, the City has suffered major job losses. The City's high unemployment rate and $6 billion budget gap should keep us focused on the difficulties that we still face." Monthly Year-over-Year Changes 2000-2001 Year-over-year comparisons of monthly job losses since September 2001 show that the decline in New York City jobs is more than three times greater percentage-wise than the national rate, as shown in Chart A. The total number of jobs in New York City in April was 107,300 below the number in April 2001, which is a decline of 2.9 percent. Nationally, jobs in April declined by only 0.9 percent on a year-over-year basis. (The month-over-month figures show an increase of 0.4 percent in jobs for the nation, the best showing since May 2001.)
Civilian Employment (Household Survey) Civilian employment, the number of city residents with jobs, rose by 16,100 in April, reducing the cumulative loss since September 2001 to 23,400 working New Yorkers. This month-to-month rise in employment, however, was accompanied by an even larger increase in the labor force, 25,900. As a result, the number of unemployed rose by 9,800. The unemployment rate therefore rose to 7.7 percent, the highest level since December 1998.
The City's gain of 7,300 jobs in April is the net of an increase of 8,600 private-sector jobs and a decline of 1,300 government jobs. The lost government jobs were entirely from a loss of 1,700 Federal jobs. The City's jobs (including independent agencies such as the MTA) rose by 400 in April, while the State showed no change. Among private-sector jobs, the positive numbers were in manufacturing (up 2,300), transportation and public utilities (up 300), trade (up 4,700, mostly from a rise of 3,100 in retail trade), finance, insurance and real estate (up 1,300, mostly from a rise of 700 in banking and 600 in securities; real estate was up only 200 and insurance fell by 200), and services (including a 1,100 job increase in eating and drinking establishments). The best news is that the critical business-services sector was up by 3,100 jobs in April, the largest one-month increase since August 2000. Negative numbers on the jobs front continued to be registered in construction (down 1,100), social services (down 100), health services (down 200), motion pictures and amusements (down 800), and legal (down 1,000).
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