NYC Comptroller's Office Press Office


PR04-03-015		March 4, 2004
Contact: Press Office		212-669-3747

THOMPSON: NYC GAINS 20,400 JOBS IN JANUARY— BUT UNEMPLOYMENT RATE RISES TO 8.4%

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today released his office’s analysis and seasonal adjustment of January job numbers reported by the New York State Department of Labor and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. ¹

"The jobs picture is mixed," said Thompson. "The good news is that in January the City gained 20,400 jobs, seasonally adjusted, reflected in every sector of private industry except manufacturing. But the bad news is that the City's unemployment rate rose to 8.4 percent."

Regarding the unemployment rate, Thompson said: "The number of employed New York City residents, seasonally adjusted, fell by 3,100 in January, as the number of unemployed New Yorkers rose to 309,700, seasonally adjusted—- an increase of 13,400. This represents the largest monthly increase since October 2002.”

The total number of employed New Yorkers (New York City residents with jobs) has fallen by 157,400 since December 2000 to 3,362,000. The City's unemployment rate in January was 2.8 percentage points above the nation's rate of 5.6 percent, an increase from December, when the gap was 2.4 percentage points.

Since December 2000, New York City has lost 219,300 jobs, seasonally adjusted, of which 139,500 (or about two-thirds) have been lost since September 2001.

Gap with Nation's Year-over-Year Job Loss

The gap between the percentage loss in New York City jobs and the percentage loss in the nation has been narrowing and in January fell to 0.56 of a percentage point, the lowest number in 13 months. The City has lagged the nation since March 2001, with the gap opening up significantly in September 2001. The U.S. recession has been officially declared over in December 2001, but the New York City recession continued through the second quarter of 2003. The gap between the U.S. and New York City percentage job losses narrowed in the last quarter of 2002, then grew again until December, as may be seen in Chart 1.

Chart 1. New York City Continues to Lag the U.S.: Year-over-Year Monthly Percent Changes in Jobs, January 2000 to January 2004, U.S. and NYC

	NYC Y/Y Change	US Y/Y Change	NYC - US Change
2003 - January	-0.9%	-0.3%	-0.59%
February	-1.2%	-0.3%	-0.85%
March	-1.4%	-0.4%	-0.98%
April	-1.6%	-0.4%	-1.22%
May	-1.6%	-0.4%	-1.26%
June	-1.8%	-0.4%	-1.31%
July	-1.8%	-0.4%	-1.47%
August	-1.9%	-0.4%	-1.49%
September	-1.5%	-0.3%	-1.14%
October	-1.6%	-0.2%	-1.39%
November	-1.6%	-0.2%	-1.40%
December	-1.6%	-0.0%	-1.52%
2004- January	-0.6%	-0.0%	-0.56
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 civilian employment numbers released on March 3, 2004 were revised all the way back to 1978.

Seasonally Adjusted Private Sector Jobs Rose by 20,600 in January

The private sector gained 20,600 jobs and the government sector lost 200 jobs. Local government jobs (i.e., jobs in City government and in independent local agencies like the MTA) rose by 800 but Federal jobs fell by 800 and state jobs fell by 200.

The January growth in jobs occurred in every sector except manufacturing, which fell by 1,100 jobs. The largest increase was in the information sector, which grew by 4,900 jobs, followed by education and health services, which grew by 3,700 jobs. Two sectors both grew by 3,200 jobs - professional business services and trade, transportation and utilities. Financial activities added 1,700 jobs, which are important to the City economy because of the high earnings in this sector. Leisure and hospitality (tourism-related services) added 1,400 jobs and other services added 1,800 jobs.

These numbers 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, January 2004 Compared with December 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.

City Unemployment Rate Rises to 8.4% in January

The City's unemployment rate in January 2004, seasonally adjusted, rose to 8.4 percent, from 8.1 percent in December. The number of unemployed New Yorkers, seasonally adjusted, rose by 13,400 in January, after having risen by 1,700 New Yorkers in December. The number of employed New Yorkers in January fell by 3,100, seasonally adjusted, after having fallen by 1,100 in December.

The City's labor-force-participation rate was 57.7 percent in January, unchanged from December. These rates are down from the recent high of 59.6 percent in December 2002. This rate is a measure of the number of New Yorkers working relative to the adult population. The decline over the past year is a sign of a possible growth in the number of discouraged workers. If the labor force participation rate were at the level of December 2002, the NYC unemployment rate would have risen to 11.3 percent. The corresponding U.S. figure in January 2003 was 66.1 percent.

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¹The 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.