"November jobs rose by 2,700, while the City’s unemployment rate, which fell to 7.7 percent, was at its lowest since March 2002,” said Comptroller Thompson.

The number of unemployed New York City residents fell by 17,700 in November, seasonally adjusted, after falling by 26,400 in October. The number of unemployed in November stood at 284,500. The number of employed New Yorkers rose in November by 28,900, seasonally adjusted, the best number since April 2003 and the second-best number since April 2000.

“It is encouraging to see more New Yorkers employed.” Comptroller Thompson said. He added, “Although the City's unemployment rate in November was 1.8 percentage points above the nation's, it is an improvement over the previous month, when the gap was more than 2 percentage points and is another indication that the City’s recession is over."

Gap with Nation's Year-over-Year Job Loss Narrows in November

The gap between the percentage loss in New York City jobs compared with the percentage loss in the nation has been narrowing and in November fell to exactly 0.5 of a percentage point. The City has lagged the nation since March 2001, with the gap opening up significantly in September 2001. The U.S. recession was officially declared over as of November 2001, but the New York City recession continued through the second quarter of 2003. The gap between the U.S. and New York City percentage job losses has been narrowing since August. This may be seen in Chart 1.

Since December 2000, New York City has lost 230,300 jobs, seasonally adjusted, of which 150,200 (or 65.2 percent, slightly less than two-thirds) were lost after September 2001.

Seasonally Adjusted Jobs Rose by 2,700 in November

Total jobs located in New York City rose by 2,700 in November as compared with the October job numbers, which were revised downward since their release last month. The private sector gained 1,500 seasonally adjusted jobs compared with October. The government sector gained 1,200 jobs, seasonally adjusted.

Of the seasonally adjusted gain of 1,500 jobs in the private sector, the areas of significant growth were (1) leisure and hospitality, which grew by 2,100 jobs, (2) financial activities, which grew by 2,000 jobs and (3) professional and business services, which grew by 1,800. Education and health services added 800 jobs.

On the down side, construction lost 2,600 jobs and the information sector lost 2,000 jobs. These numbers may be seen in Chart 2, which combines several related NAICS categories to simplify the analysis.

Unemployment Rate Falls to 7.7% in November

The City's unemployment rate in November 2003, seasonally adjusted, fell to 7.7 percent, from 8.2 percent in October. The number of unemployed New Yorkers, seasonally adjusted, fell by 17,700, seasonally adjusted, after having fallen by 26,400 New Yorkers in October. The number of employed New Yorkers rose by 28,900 in November, seasonally adjusted, after having fallen by 700 in October. This is the second-largest increase in the number of employed since April 2000, when the number of employed New Yorkers rose by 30,100 (the best month was April 2003, with a rise of 31,900).

The labor force participation rate rose to 57.3 percent from 57.2 percent in October, down from the high of 65.6 in July 2002. This rate is a measure of the number of New Yorkers working relative to the adult population.

New York City's seasonally adjusted November unemployment rate of 7.7 percent is 1.8 percentage points higher than the nation's seasonally adjusted November unemployment rate of 5.9 percent, an improvement over October.

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

Within New York City, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the November unemployment rate of New York City residents was lowest in Queens at 6.4 percent. It was highest in the Bronx at 10.2 percent. Unemployment was second highest at 8.7 percent in Brooklyn, followed by 7.3 percent in Manhattan and 6.6 percent in Staten Island.

On a year-over-year basis, the news is good. Unemployment of New York City residents fell in every borough. It fell the most among residents of Manhattan, by 1.2 percentage points, followed by a decline of 0.5 of a percentage point in Brooklyn, 0.3 of a percentage point in Queens, 0.2 of a percentage point in Staten Island and 0.1 of a percentage point in the Bronx.