While on a year-over-year basis the number of private sector jobs was down by 119,200 in January, the City's private sector gained 2,800 jobs after adjusting for seasonal fluctuations, Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. announced today. Total jobs rose by a seasonally adjusted 800 in January, even though on a year-over-year basis jobs declined by 125,100. Unemployment fell to a seasonally adjusted 7.1 percent in January, after climbing from 5.3 percent in March 2001 to 7.3 percent in December. The seasonal adjustments to payroll jobs were made by the NYC Comptroller's Office based on unadjusted preliminary numbers from the NY State Department of Labor, which also released revised monthly figures for 2000 and 2001.

"The preliminary job numbers for January offer a glimmer of optimism," said Comptroller Thompson.

The 800-job increase in January is the net of a 2,800-job increase in the private sector and a decrease of 2,000 government jobs. The private-sector job increase comes from growth in four sectors: construction is up by 1,100, manufacturing by 1,600 jobs, trade by 2,900 jobs and services by 2,200 jobs. These increases are offset by a 2,900-job loss in transportation and utilities and a 2,100-job loss in the FIRE sector.

New York City vs. Nation

Year-over-year comparisons of monthly job losses since September 2001 show

that the decline in NYC jobs has been four or five times as great percentage-wise as in the nation. (See Chart A.) In January 2002 the loss for NYC was 3.4 percent, nearly four times as great as the nation's loss of 0.9 percent.

Chart A. Monthly Payroll-Jobs Growth, NYC and the U.S., Year-over-Year, Percent Change, Jan. 00-Jan. 02, Revised
Source: NYC Comptroller's Office, based on NYS and U.S. Departments of Labor. January 2002 data are preliminary.

"This comparison shows that we need to continue to focus on obtaining increased State and Federal aid," Thompson said.

Residents with Jobs

The number of NYC residents with jobs rose by a seasonally adjusted 25,700 in January, after a record three-month decline of 57,300 fewer New Yorkers working in the last three months of 2001. The rise in employment was accompanied by a January decline of 4,200 in the number of unemployed, after a 23,100 rise in unemployment in the last three months of 2001. The decline in unemployment in January results from the rise in civilian employment of 25,700 exceeding the rise in the labor force of 21,400.

Impact of Revisions

The State Labor Department revised figures for the past two years show that the previous low in unemployment was 5.3 percent in March 2001, instead of the 5.0 percent which was reported in July 2001. The revisions reduced the number of New Yorkers working in the first half of 2001.

Revisions also reduced the number of NYC payroll jobs. For the year 2001, after revisions NYC lost 20,900 jobs, instead of the previously reported gain of 19,700 jobs. For 2000, the increase in the number of NYC jobs was raised to 102,300 from 99,800.

The revisions significantly change the 2001 record in terms of the timing of NYC's jobs recession. The revisions bring NYC numbers more in line with previously reported national data and move the onset of the City's jobs recession from the third to the first quarter, i.e., ahead of the nation.

Year-over-Year Job Changes for 2001

After revisions, the year-over-year job loss in 2001 was 20,900. This was the worst performance in the City's job market since a 93,000-job loss in 1992. Of the job loss in 2001, 15,100 was in private-sector jobs and 5,800 in government jobs. Only two sectors, construction and services, were up for the year, construction by 2,900 jobs and services by 8,200 jobs. Manufacturing was down by 12,600, transportation and utilities down by 1,200, trade (mostly wholesale trade) down by 7,900, and the finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sector down by 4,400.

Within the FIRE sector, real estate and securities were up slightly, real estate by 400 jobs and securities by 1,200 jobs. The job losses were in banking, down by 4,600 jobs and insurance, down by 1,400 jobs.

The 8,200-job gain in services is a result of gains of 4,400 jobs in social services, 4,600 jobs in health services and 1,400 jobs in legal services. The other service-industry sectors lost jobs. Business services shed 13,200 jobs in 2001, the largest loss in this sector since 1991. Motion pictures and amusements lost 200 jobs and engineering and management consulting lost 1,200 jobs. The 5,800 government job losses were concentrated in the Federal sector with a loss of 5,000 jobs, and the local sector with a loss of 1,100; State government jobs were up by 400.

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