"In October, New York City gained 2,800 seasonally adjusted private-sector jobs,” said Comptroller Thompson. “In addition, September job growth was adjusted upward by 8,800 jobs from 12,300 to 21,100. This is positive news for our economy, bolstered by the fall in the City's unemployment rate to 8.2 percent from 8.8 percent.”

In total, net job gain was flat in October as the number of Government jobs fell by 2,800. Overall, the number of unemployed New Yorkers fell by 26,300 while the number of employed was virtually unchanged. New York City's unemployment rate remains more than two percentage points above the national unemployment rate of 6 percent. The numbers are reported according to the new NAICS classifications.¹

Gap with Nation's Year-over-Year Job Loss Narrows in October

The gap between the percentage loss in New York City jobs compared with the percentage loss in the nation has been narrowing but still exceeds 0.5 of a percentage point for the second month in a row. The gap was 0.6 of a percentage point in October. The City has lagged the nation since March 2001, with the gap opening up significantly in September 2001. The U.S. recession was officially declared over in November 2001, but the New York City recession continued through the third quarter of 2003. The gap between the U.S. and New York City percentage job losses narrowed until January 2003, after which it has increased slightly. This may be seen in Chart 1.

Chart 1. New York City Continues to Lag the Nation: Year-over-Year Monthly Percent Changes in Jobs, January 2000 through October 2003, United States and New York City

Since December 2000, New York City has lost 231,400 jobs, seasonally adjusted, of which 151,700 (or 65.6 percent, slightly less than two-thirds) have been lost since September 2001.

Seasonally Adjusted Private-Sector Jobs Rose by 2,800 in October

Total jobs located in New York City were unchanged in October as compared with September job numbers, which were revised upward from their first release last month. The private sector gained 2,800 seasonally adjusted jobs compared with September. The government sector fell by 2,800 jobs because local government jobs (i.e., jobs in City government and in independent local agencies like the MTA) fell by 3,200 - Federal jobs rose by 100 and State jobs by 200.

Of the seasonally adjusted gain of 2,800 jobs in the private sector, the areas of significant growth were (1) financial activities, which rose by 2,300, (2) education and health services, which added 1,800 jobs, and (3) the information sector, which added 1,600 jobs, and (4) manufacturing, which added 1,100 jobs. The effect of these changes may be seen in Chart 2, which combines several related NAICS categories to simplify the analysis.

Chart 2. Change in New York City Jobs by NAICS Category, October 2003 Compared with September 2003, Seasonally Adjusted

Data Source: New York State Department of Labor and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, revised series based on NAICS job categories.

On the down side, the largest loss was 3,800 jobs in construction and an 800-job loss in the category of other services.

Unemployment Rate Falls to 8.2% in October

The City's unemployment rate in October 2003, seasonally adjusted, fell to 8.2 percent from 8.8 percent. The City's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 2.2 percentage points higher than the nation's seasonally adjusted October unemployment rate of 6.0 percent. However, the number of unemployed New Yorkers, seasonally adjusted, fell by 26,300, after having risen by 29,600 in September. The number of employed New Yorkers rose by 600.

The labor force participation rate fell to 57.3 percent in October from 57.8 percent in September, and down from the high of 65.6 in July 2002. This rate is a measure of the number of New Yorkers working relative to the adult population. The NYC decline is a sign of a possible growth in the number of discouraged workers. The corresponding U.S. figure in October 2003 was 66.1 percent.

Unemployment by Borough, October 2003 and Comparison with a Year Earlier

Within New York City, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the October unemployment rate of New York City residents was lowest in Queens at 6.8 percent. It was highest in the Bronx at 10.7 percent. Unemployment was second-highest at 9.2 percent in Brooklyn, followed by 7.9 percent in Manhattan and 7.0 percent in Staten Island.

On a year-over-year basis, unemployment of New York City residents rose in four boroughs – by 0.5 of a percentage point in the Bronx, by 0.2 of a percentage point in Staten Island and by 0.1 of a percentage point in Brooklyn and Queens. Unemployment fell in Manhattan, by 0.7 of a percentage point.

# # #

¹ The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) replaced the previous Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, as described at http://stats.bls.gov/sae/saenaics.htm.