A sign that New York State's economic fortunes are on an uptick — some encouraging numbers have been released by the labor department.
State officials say New York's unemployment rate dropped from 7.7 percent in October to 7.4 percent in November, the lowest level in nearly five years. Career-transition expert Dan Moran with NextAct of Colonie says while the number may seem small, it is "significant." "That's a nice, healthy drop in the unemployment rate, and as well the number of new jobs that hit the market. We are seeing real job growth."
The national rate last month was 7 percent, down from 7.3 percent in October and 7.8 percent in November 2012. Moran notes the Capital Region and the Hudson Valley are leading the state. According to the Department of Labor, the state's private-sector job count rose by 4,300 to more than 7,493,000, an all-time high.
Kevin Jack is the statewide Labor Market Analyst with the New York State Department of Labor. "New York is one of only 11 states in the nation that has regained all of the private sector jobs that it lost during the recession." The numbers show November's jobless rate is the lowest since January 2009. The rate in November 2012 was 8.2 percent. Jack notes New York saw job growth in all but two metro areas across the state. "The most rapid job growth is downstate, specifically New York City and Long Island. But the Albany region, the private sector job count grew by 2.000 or 6/10ths of 1 per cent. That was in line with the overall number for the upstate New York region."
New York City's unemployment rate stood at 8.5 percent in November, down slightly from October. The rate for areas outside the city dropped from 6.9 percent in October to 6.6 percent last month. Jack says the state continues to show balanced growth, with most industries adding jobs. "The ones that added the most jobs over the last year included education and health, leisure and hospitality, trade trade, transportation and utilities and professional business services. So that's a pretty healthy mix; we're looking pretty good across the board."
Dan Moran points out the job market has cooled just a little with the arrival of the holidays. "As soon as we hit that first or second week of January, it's gonna come roaring back; it always does." Moran says job postings in the Capital Region were 1,667 compared to 1,857 the week prior. The Capital Region continues to outpace Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse when it comes to job postings in the market.
Here are some Labor Department statistics:
See State and Area Job Data (opens in new window)
See Labor Market Overview (opens in new window)
See Jobs and Unemployment Fact Sheet (opens in new window)
Job highlights since November 2012:
- Since November 2012, the number of private sector jobs in New York State increased by 141,700, or 1.9%.
- In the 10-county Downstate region, private sector jobs grew by 3.0% over the past year. Downstate’s private sector job growth was most rapid in New York City (+3.4%) and Nassau-Suffolk (+3.0%).
- In the 52-county Upstate region, the private sector job count grew by 0.7% over the past year. The Upstate region’s private sector job growth was centered within its metro areas (+0.7%).
- Over the past year, private sector jobs grew most rapidly in these metro areas in the state:
- New York City (+3.4%)
- Nassau-Suffolk (+3.0%)
- Buffalo-Niagara Falls (+1.6%)
- Utica-Rome (+1.5%)
- Glens Falls (+1.4%)
- Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown (-1.5%) and Binghamton (-0.2%) were the only metro areas in the state to lose private sector jobs between November 2012 and November 2013.
