New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today issued the following statement regarding the New York State Department of Labor announcement that February’s unemployment rate in New York City, on a seasonally adjusted basis, leaped to 8.1% from 6.9% in January:

“While New York City was successful for a while in fending off the economic downturn, the drastic increase in the unemployment rate last month illustrates that the nation’s troubles have finally engulfed our city. We are now feeling the full brunt of this recession, which, as I have previously estimated, will cost New York City a quarter million jobs before it is over.”

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