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NYC SUFFERS 1,700 JOB LOSS IN MAY
New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today released his office’s analysis and seasonal adjustment of May job numbers reported by the New York State Department of Labor and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“I am pleased that unemployment is down from 7.5 percent in April to 7.0 percent in May and that more New Yorkers report that they have found jobs,” Comptroller Thompson said. “The number of unemployed New Yorkers fell by 16,700 in May, seasonally adjusted and the number of employed New Yorkers rose by 5,700.”
“However,” he added, “I am concerned that the City lost jobs in May. This loss of 1,700 jobs is a 0.6 percent annualized decrease when compared with April, seasonally adjusted. This compares with a 2.3 percent month-to-month increase for the nation.”
Thompson noted that the labor force participation rate fell to 57.0 percent in May, down from 57.3 percent in April, continuing a steady decline since May 2000 in the number of New Yorkers looking for work relative to the adult population. The City’s labor-force-participation rate is 8.9 percentage points below the national average of 65.9 percent.
The number of employed New York City residents rose to 3,394,500 in May, seasonally adjusted, as the number of unemployed New Yorkers fell to 256,100, seasonally adjusted. The total number of employed New Yorkers has fallen by 49,200 since the recent peak in June 2002.
The City’s Gap with Nation in Job Creation Widens
The gap between the year-over-year percentage loss of jobs in City jobs and the year-over-year percentage change in U.S. jobs narrowed between December and February but rose again in the next three months to more than two percentage points. The City has lagged the nation in job creation since March 2001, with the gap opening up significantly in September 2001. The gap between the U.S. and New York City percentage job losses was wider in May than it had been since August 2002, when it was 2.3 percentage points (Chart 1).
Chart 1. New York City vs. U.S. in Year-over-Year Monthly Percent Changes in Jobs, January 2000 to May 2004, U.S. and NYC
|
NYC Y/Y Change |
US Y/Y Change |
NYC - US Difference |
JANUARY 2003 |
-0.9% |
-0.3% |
-0.59% |
February |
-1.2% |
-0.3% |
-0.85% |
March |
-1.4% |
-0.4% |
-0.98% |
April |
-1.6% |
-0.4% |
-1.22% |
May |
-1.6% |
-0.4% |
-1.26% |
June |
-1.8% |
-0.4% |
-1.31% |
July |
-1.8% |
-0.4% |
-1.47% |
August |
-1.9% |
-0.4% |
-1.49% |
September |
-1.5% |
-0.3% |
-1.14% |
October |
-1.6% |
-0.2% |
-1.39% |
November |
-1.6% |
-0.2% |
-1.40% |
December |
-1.6% |
-0.1% |
-1.51% |
JANUARY 2004 |
-0.5% |
-0.0% |
-0.47% |
February |
-0.2% |
0.1% |
-0.31% |
March |
0.0% |
0.5% |
-0.52% |
April |
-1.0% |
0.9% |
-1.89% |
May |
-1.0% |
1.1% |
-2.03% |
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, when New York City first experienced negative growth, the City has lost 215,200 jobs, seasonally adjusted, of which 135,200 -or nearly 63 percent - have been lost since September 2001.
Seasonally Adjusted Jobs Drop by 1,700 in May
Total jobs located in New York City, seasonally adjusted, fell by 1,700 in May compared with April. The private sector lost 2,500 jobs and the government sector gained 800 jobs. Local government jobs (i.e., jobs in City government and in independent local agencies such as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority) rose by 1,100. State jobs were unchanged and Federal jobs fell by 200.
Within the private sector, the two categories that showed seasonally adjusted job growth were professional and business services, which grew by 3,300 jobs (its seventh consecutive positive month), and leisure and hospitality, which grew by 2,500 jobs (with only one negative month out of the previous eight).
Chart 2. Change in New York City Jobs by NAICS Category,
May 2004 Compared with April 2004, Seasonally Adjusted
Data Source: New York State Department of Labor and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, revised series based on NAICS job categories. The percent-change numbers in parentheses are annualized numbers based on month-to-month changes. For example, if jobs in the “Information” category continued to decline at the same rate as they did between April and May, they would represent one-fourth of all the jobs in this category.
Six other main private sector categories had job losses: construction lost 1,000 jobs; manufacturing lost 500 jobs; trade, transportation and utilities lost 1,500; information lost 4,100; financial activities lost 500; and, education and health services lost 1,300.
City Unemployment Rate Falls to 7.0% in May
The City’s unemployment rate in May, seasonally adjusted, fell to 7.0 percent, from 7.5 percent in April. The City's unemployment rate in May is 1.4 percentage points above the nation's. The number of unemployed New Yorkers, seasonally adjusted, fell by 16,700 in May, after having fallen by 16,300 in April. After falling by 1,100 in April, the number of employed New Yorkers in May rose by 5,700, seasonally adjusted.
May Unemployment Rates by Borough
Within New York City on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the May unemployment rate of City residents was lowest in Queens, at 5.6 percent. It was highest in the Bronx, 8.5 percent; second-highest in Brooklyn, 7.3 percent, followed by Manhattan, 6.2 percent and Staten Island, 5.8 percent.
On a year-over-year basis, unemployment of City residents fell in all boroughs—by 1.6 percentage points in Manhattan, 1.5 percentage points in Brooklyn, 1.1 percentage points in Queens, 1 percentage point in the Bronx and 0.8 of a percentage point on Staten Island.
The numbers are reported according to the new North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), which replaced the previous Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, as described at http://stats.bls.gov/sae/saenaics.htm.
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