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

" New York City 's unemployment rate fell from 6.9 percent in September to 6.1 percent in October, the lowest rate since July of 2001," Thompson said. "The number of unemployed City residents fell to 225,200 in October." All of the figures cited are seasonally adjusted.

Thompson noted that the City lost 4,700 jobs in October, primarily due to losses in the private sector. The City's October job loss is a 1.6 percent annualized month-over-month loss compared with September, seasonally adjusted. This compares with October's annualized seasonally adjusted job increase for the nation of 3.1 percent.

The City's labor force fell by 20,100, seasonally adjusted, after having risen by 30,200 in September. The number of unemployed City residents fell by 31,800 in October to 225,200, representing the largest one-month decline since August 1976. The number of employed New York City residents rose to 3,473,400, an increase of 11,700 in October, seasonally adjusted. The City's unemployment rate of 6.1 percent in October was 0.6 of a percentage point above the nation's.

The City's Year-over-Year Monthly Lag behind U.S. in Job Creation Widens

The lag of City year-over-year monthly percentage job growth behind U.S. job growth rose again in October to 0.65 of a percentage point, the largest difference in any month in 2004. The City has lagged the nation in job creation consistently since March 2001, with the gap opening up significantly in October 2001, 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 Oct. 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 October 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.)

Total Jobs Fell by 4,700; Private Sector Lost 3,800 Jobs

Total jobs located in New York City , seasonally adjusted, fell by 4,700 in October compared with September. The private sector lost 3,800 jobs and the public sector lost 900. Within the public sector, local government jobs (i.e., jobs in City government and in independent local agencies like the MTA) fell by 700 and Federal jobs fell by 200 in October, while State jobs rose by 100.

Within the private sector, three sectors showed seasonally adjusted job growth and five showed decline. The growth areas, in order of number of new jobs, were: professional and business services, which grew by 1,200 jobs; construction, which grew by 600 jobs; and trade, transportation, and utilities, which grew by 300 jobs.

On the down side, leisure and hospitality lost 2,200 jobs; information lost 1,600 jobs; manufacturing lost 1,100 jobs; and information and financial activities each lost 100 jobs. This is shown in Chart 2.

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

October Compared with September 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 204,200 jobs, seasonally adjusted, of which 125,100 jobs (or over 61 percent) have been lost since October 2001.

October Unemployment Rates by Borough

Within New York City on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the October unemployment rate of City residents was lowest in Queens , at 5.1 percent. It was highest in the Bronx at 8.1 percent. The second-highest unemployment rate was in Brooklyn at 6.8 percent followed by 6.0 percent in Manhattan and 5.4 percent in Staten Island .

On a year-over-year basis, unemployment of City residents fell in all boroughs-by 2.6 percentage points in the Bronx, by 2.5 percentage points in Brooklyn, by 2.0 percentage points in Manhattan, by 1.8 percentage points in Queens, and by 1.6 percentage points in Staten Island.

City Unemployment Rate fell to 6.1 % in October

The City's unemployment rate in October, seasonally adjusted, fell to 6.1 percent, from 6.9 percent in September. The number of unemployed New Yorkers, seasonally adjusted, fell by 31,800 in October, after having increased by 8,400 in September. The number of employed New Yorkers in October rose by 11,700, seasonally adjusted, after having risen by 21,800 in September.

The City's labor-force-participation rate (a measure of the number of New Yorkers working relative to the adult population) was 57.2 percent in October, a decrease from 57.6 percent in September. The City's labor-force-participation rate is 8.7 percentage points below the national average of 65.9 percent.

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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.