| Private sector employment in New York City rose 31,000, or 1.0 percent, to 3,196,100 for the 12-month period ending August 2008. Job growth occurred in educational and health services (+11,400), trade, transportation and utilities (+10,600), leisure and hospitality (+8,800), information (+5,800), other services (+2,400), natural resources, mining and construction (+2,100), and professional and business services (+1,900). The manufacturing (-6,700) and financial activities (-5,300) sectors lost jobs over the year
The City lost 5,200 private sector jobs between July and August (not seasonally adjusted). This was slightly worse than its 10-year average loss of 4,400. Layoffs at educational facilities, reflecting the end of summer semesters at colleges, and continued cutbacks at financial companies dominated the job picture in August. Despite the obvious weakness in the financial and professional industries, strength in tourism, retailing and construction have enabled the local economy to show year-to-year gains. Although the crises at Lehman Brothers and AIG appear to be working out so as to avoid immediate large-scale layoffs, the continued financial sector turmoil guarantees that job losses on Wall Street will climb rapidly over the next few months.
The City’s over-the-year private sector growth rate at 1.0 percent in August exceeded the comparable rate for the state (+0.4 percent) and the nation (-0.6 percent). For the latest three months, New York City’s private sector employment averaged 3,209,100, a gain of 0.8 percent from the same period a year ago.
The City’s unemployment rate climbed to 5.9 percent in August from 5.9 percent in July and 5.3 percent a year earlier. The less erratic 3-month average was 5.5 percent up slightly from 5.4 percent for the same period last year.
Special Interest to New York City
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