Unemployment for New York City residents rose from 8.0 percent in November to 8.4 percent in December, the highest since March 1998. "December's job loss follows significant losses in October and November," said Comptroller Thompson. "The City's jobs recession has continued for a second full year."

As of December, the City has 173,100 fewer jobs, on a seasonally adjusted basis, from the New York City job peak of 3,753,800 in December 2000. Since September 2001, seasonally adjusted, 125,500 jobs have been lost.

Thompson noted that the City's December job loss, on a year-over-year basis was six times greater than losses for the rest of the nation (1.2 percent compared with 0.2 percent). "This is the worst year-over-year loss since 1992," said the Comptroller. "These numbers underscore the seriousness of the City's weakened economy."

Civilian employment, the number of NYC residents with jobs, fell by 9,900 in December. The number of unemployed increased by 16,700 in December and results from the decrease in the number of those employed and an increase of 6,900 in the City's labor force due to more people looking for work.

Fourth-Quarter Jobs Performance

New York City lost 29,000 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2002 compared with the third quarter. Other than the fourth quarter of 2001, in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks, this is the largest drop in payroll jobs since the first quarter of 1992, during the 1989-1992 recession.

The fourth-quarter losses were in every private-industry sector - 3,800 lost in manufacturing, 1,400 in construction, 4,600 in transportation and public utilities, 5,000 in trade, 1,900 in the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector (with a 600-job increase in insurance jobs offset by losses in the other subsectors), 800 in services (increases of 1,100 in social services and 2,100 in health services offset by losses in the other subsectors).

Government jobs fell by 11,400, as increases of 1,100 Federal jobs and 100 State jobs were offset by 12,500 New York City jobs losses (including City agencies and independent agencies such as the MTA). Fourth-quarter civilian employment fell by 21,600 jobs.

Year-over-Year Job Changes for 2002

The year-over-year loss of NYC payroll jobs in 2002 was 91,600, the worst loss since 1992 and 4.4 times the loss in 2001 compared with 2000. The loss in private-sector jobs was 88,300, or 5.8 times the 2001 loss.

Losses for 2002 occurred in every major industry sector. Manufacturing was down 12,700 jobs from 2001, continuing a string of declines that persisted during the eight years of overall job growth from 1993 through 2000. Construction was down by 3,500 jobs. Transportation and public utilities were down by 14,100 jobs. Trade was down by 9,200 jobs. The FIRE sector was down by 26,200, mostly from a 14,600 drop in the securities sub-sector. Services were down by 22,600 jobs, although social services were up by 3,500 and health services by 5,600 jobs. Government jobs fell by 3,300 for the year, with declines in all three levels of government.

Monthly Year-over-Year Changes 2001-2002

Year-over-year comparisons of job losses show that the decline in NYC jobs has been consistently more than three times as great percentage-wise as in the nation. (See Chart A.) In November and December the loss for NYC was six times that of the nation.

Chart A. Monthly Payroll-Jobs Growth, NYC and the U.S., Year-over-Year, Percent Change, Jan. 00-Dec. 02

Data Source: NYS and U.S. Departments of Labor.

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