"After 30 months of unrelieved economic hardship, the July jobs numbers show 13,700 new private-sector jobs. This is wonderful news for New Yorkers," said Comptroller Thompson. "However, the unemployment rate has remained steady at 8.1 percent for the past two months."

The numbers are reported according to the new NAICS classifications¹.

Gap with Nation's Year-over-Year Job Loss Widens in July

The City has lagged the nation since March 2001, with the gap widening significantly in September 2001. The U.S. recession was officially declared over in November 2001, but the New York City recession has continued. The gap between the U.S. and New York City percentage job losses narrowed until January 2003, after which it increased slightly. This may be seen in Chart 1.

Chart 1. New York City Still Lags the Nation: Year-over-Year Monthly Percent Changes in Jobs, January 2000 through July 2003, United States and NYC

Data Source: Computations by the NYC Comptroller's Office based on data from New York State Department of Labor and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Y/Y = Year over Year.)

Since December 2000, New York City has lost 241,500 jobs, seasonally adjusted, of which 172,600 (or 71.5 percent) have been lost since September 2001.

Seasonally Adjusted Jobs Fell by 1,500 in July

Total seasonally adjusted jobs in New York City fell by 1,500 in July, because the growth of 13,700 private-sector jobs was offset by the loss of 15,200 government jobs. Federal jobs fell by 400, state jobs by 300 and local jobs (i.e., jobs in City government and in independent local agencies such as the MTA) by 14,500. This trend reflects the contraction in municipal government called for in the City's budget gap closing efforts.

The increase of 13,700 seasonally adjusted private-sector jobs came mostly from the revival of the leisure and hospitality industry (restaurants and hotels), which grew by 6,700 jobs, accounting for nearly half of the month's seasonally adjusted increase, as shown in Chart 2. The bulk of the increase came from eating and drinking establishments, which added 4,600 jobs.

The industry with the next-largest growth was trade, transportation and utilities, which added 3,200 jobs. Three other industry sectors added more than 1,500 jobs each: education and health services added 2,000, manufacturing added 1,800 and construction added 1,700. The only industry sector to have lost a substantial number of jobs is professional business services, which lost by 1,800 jobs. All these numbers may be seen in Chart 2, which combines several related NAICS categories to simplify the analysis. Chart 2 also shows the annual rate of loss or gain for these industries.

Chart 2. Change in New York City Jobs by NAICS Category, July 2003 Compared with May 2003, Thousands of Jobs, Seasonally Adjusted

Data Source: New York State Department of Labor and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, revised series based on NAICS job categories. Next to each bar is a number for the change in jobs for the month and in parentheses next to it is the percentage change in jobs in the industry if the monthly change continued for a year (i.e., the percentage change is annualized).

Unemployment Rate Unchanged at 8.1% in July

The City's unemployment rate in July 2003, seasonally adjusted, remained at 8.1 percent. As in the past three months, both seasonally adjusted civilian employment and unemployment fell in July, suggesting a steady but low-volume migration of residents out of the City or ceasing to look for work. Employment fell by 2,700 in July to 3,372,900 and the number of unemployed fell by 500, seasonally adjusted, to 296,100.

The labor force participation rate continued to fall in July, to 57.2 percent from a high of 65.6 in July 2002. This is a measure of the number of New Yorkers working relative to the adult population. The corresponding U.S. figure in July 2003 was 66.2 percent, down from 66.6 percent in June.

New York City's seasonally adjusted July unemployment rate of 8.1 percent was, as in June, 1.7 percentage points higher than the nation's seasonally adjusted July unemployment rate of 6.2 percent, which was down from 6.4 percent in June.

Unemployment by Borough, July 2003 and Comparison with a Year Earlier

Within New York City, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the July unemployment rate of New York City residents was lowest in Queens at 6.5 percent. It was highest in the Bronx at 10 percent. Unemployment was second-highest at 9.1 percent in Brooklyn, followed by 7.9 percent in Manhattan and 7.8 percent in Staten Island.

On a year-over-year basis, unemployment of New York City residents rose in three boroughs - by 0.5 of a percentage point in the Bronx, by 0.4 of a percentage point on Staten Island and by 0.3 of a percentage point in Brooklyn. Unemployment fell in Manhattan by 0.4 of a percentage point, and was unchanged in Queens.

¹The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) replaces the previous Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes that were developed in the 1930s when manufacturing accounted for a far greater portion of U.S. jobs. A full description of the NAICS data may be found at http://stats.bls.gov/sae/saenaics.htm.

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