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| THOMPSON: NEW YORK CITY LOSES 2,100 MORE PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS IN MARCH
98,700 JOBS LOST SINCE SEPTEMBER
UNEMPLOYMENT HIGHEST SINCE 1998;
CITY IN FIFTH QUARTER OF A JOBS RECESSION
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| Private-sector
jobs located in New York City, seasonally adjusted, fell by 2,100
in March, for the sixth consecutive month of job losses, City Comptroller
William C. Thompson, Jr. announced today. Since December 2000, the
City of New York has lost 146,800 jobs, of which more than two-thirds,
or 98,700 jobs, have been lost since September 2001. Unemployment,
also seasonally adjusted, rose to 7.5 percent in March, the highest
monthly rate since December 1998. The seasonal adjustments to payroll
jobs were made by the New York City Comptroller's Office based on
unadjusted preliminary March numbers from the N.Y. State Department
of Labor, which also released revised figures for February 2002.
"The loss of jobs in the City over the past year is more than three-and-a-half times the loss for the nation. The data show that the City is still fighting its way out of a jobs recession, while nationally the number of jobs rose significantly in March," said Comptroller Thompson. Monthly Year-Over-Year Changes 2000-2001 Year-over-year comparisons of monthly job losses since September 2001 show that the decline in New York City jobs is 3.6 times greater than the nation's decline (as shown in Chart A). The number of jobs in New York City in March 2002 was 135,100 below the number in March 2001. U.S. jobs, on the other hand, fell by only one percent in March 2002 from the same month in 2001. (As previously noted, the number of jobs in the nation increased from February to March 2002.)
Civilian Employment (Household Survey) Civilian employment, the number of New York City residents with jobs, fell by 4,200 in March, for a net cumulative loss since September 2001 of 39,800. The fall in employment was accompanied by a large March increase of 11,200 unemployed and a smaller rise of 7,000 in the labor force. As a result, the unemployment rate rose to 7.5 percent, the highest monthly unemployment level since December 1998. Industry-by-Industry Job Numbers The City's loss of 2,100 private-sector jobs in March and a further loss of 3,000 government jobs led to a total loss of 5,200 jobs. The loss in government jobs was mostly a 2,200-job decline in local government jobs (City, MTA and other local-government agencies). Of the private-sector jobs, the March declines were most serious in manufacturing (down 1,900), business services (down 3,300), and engineering and management (down 1,100) and securities (down 500, for the fourth consecutive month). The bright spots were transportation and utilities (up 500 after seven consecutive months of losses), trade (up 700), health services (up 1,700), motion pictures and amusements (up 1,400) and legal (up 600). Quarterly Results Based on quarterly seasonally adjusted data, New York City is in its fifth quarter of a jobs recession. Prior to the current recession, the previous quarterly jobs decline was in the fourth quarter of 1992. The quarterly declines in manufacturing, however, have been unbroken since the fourth quarter of 1997. Transportation and utilities have had five consecutive quarters of job losses. Banking has had one positive quarter of job growth in the past three years. The securities industry has been losing jobs for the past three quarters and services for the past four. Business services sector has been shedding jobs every quarter since 2000. On the positive side, eating and drinking establishments showed a quarter of growth after a serious decline in the fourth quarter, and health services sector has shown four consecutive quarters of job growth. The large loss of retail jobs in the fourth quarter of 2001 was reversed to a small increase in the first quarter of 2002.
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