NYC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FELL TO 7.5% AS 27,500 MORE RESIDENTS EMPLOYED  

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today released his office’s analysis and seasonal adjustment of July job numbers reported by the New York State Department of Labor and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"Unemployment among City residents is down to 7.5 percent because 27,500 more New Yorkers have found jobs, and this increase is the largest monthly gain since January 1978. The private sector gained 8,500 jobs,” said Comptroller Thompson. "The City lost 3,900 payroll jobs in July. But this seasonally adjusted loss was entirely accounted for by cuts in local government jobs, which fell by 12,200. ”

The City’s labor force grew by 17,600 in July, seasonally adjusted, so that the number of unemployed fell by 9,900 to a seasonally adjusted 278,700.

The City’s loss of 3,900 jobs in July is a 1.3 percent annualized decrease compared with June, seasonally adjusted. This compares with a 0.3 percent annualized month-to-month increase for the nation.

The number of employed New York City residents rose to 3,424,000 in July, seasonally adjusted, as the number of unemployed New Yorkers rose to 278,700, seasonally adjusted. The total number of employed New Yorkers has fallen by 19,700 since the recent peak in June 2002. The City's unemployment rate in July is 2 percentage points above the nation's.

 The City’s Lag behind the Nation in Job Creation Narrows

 The lag of City month-to-month percentage job growth behind the U.S. job growth widened to 0.34 of a percentage point. 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 in July is the narrowest since February 2004, as may be seen in Chart 1.

Chart 1. NYC and U.S. Show Positive Job Growth But NYC Still Lags U.S. in Year-over-Year Monthly Percent Changes in Jobs, January 2000 to July 2004

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.)

The numbers for Chart 1 are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Year-over-Year Monthly Percent Changes in Jobs,

January 2003 to July 2004, U.S. and NYC

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.)

Jobs Fell by 3,900 as 12,200 City Cuts Swamped 8,500 Private Gains

Total jobs located in New York City, seasonally adjusted, fell by 3,900 in July compared with June. The private sector’s gain of 8,500 jobs was more than offset by a loss of 12,400 jobs in the government sector. Local government jobs (i.e., jobs in City government and in independent local agencies like the MTA) fell by 12,200, while State and Federal jobs each fell by 100 jobs. This is shown in Chart 2.

Within the private sector, six categories showed seasonally adjusted job growth, two showed declines and one (construction) was unchanged. The growth areas, in order of number of new jobs, were: trade, transportation and utilities, which gained 2,800 jobs; professional and business services, which gained 2,000 jobs; education and health services, which gained 1,600 jobs; information, which gained 1,400 jobs; leisure and hospitality, which gained 900 jobs; and other services, which gained 400 jobs.

The private-sector areas losing jobs were manufacturing, which lost 700 jobs, and financial services, which lost 100 jobs.

Chart 2. Change in New York City Jobs by NAICS Category,

July 2004 Compared with June 2004, Seasonally Adjusted, ‘000, and SAAR

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. SAAR = Seasonally adjusted annual rate (in parentheses).

Since December 2000, New York City has lost 211,300 jobs, seasonally adjusted, of which 131,400 jobs (or about 62 percent) have been lost since September 2001.

City Unemployment Rate Falls to 7.5% in July

 The City’s unemployment rate in July, seasonally adjusted, fell to 7.5 percent from 7.8 percent in June. The number of unemployed New Yorkers, seasonally adjusted, fell by 9,900 in July, to 278,700. The number of employed New Yorkers in July rose by 27,500, seasonally adjusted, after having risen by 2,200 in June.

The City’s labor-force-participation rate (a measure of the number of New Yorkers working relative to the adult population) was 57.6 percent in July, a positive increase over the 57.4 percent rate in June and 57.0 percent in May. The City’s labor-force-participation rate is 8.6 percentage points below the national rate of 66.2 percent.

July Unemployment Rates by Borough

Within New York City on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the July unemployment rate of City residents was lowest in Queens at 6.2 percent.  It was highest in the Bronx at 9.6 percent.  The second-highest unemployment rate was in Brooklyn at 8.4 percent, followed by 7.5 percent in Staten Island and 7.0 percent in Manhattan.

On a year-over-year basis, unemployment of City residents fell in all boroughs—by 1.2 percentage points in Manhattan, by 1 percentage point in Brooklyn, by 0.8 of a percentage point in the Bronx, and by 0.6 of a percentage point in Queens and Staten Island.

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