(NYS) New York State Unemployment Are Critical

ALBANY, New York — New York state’s unemployment rate rose from 8.6 percent in July to 9 percent in August, the highest in 26 years, as the number of jobless New Yorkers hit a record high of 874,300, the state Labor Department reported Thursday.

New York (NY) City’s unemployment rate rose to 10.3 percent – the highest since 1993 – from 9.5 percent in July. Nationally, the unemployment rate rose from 9.4 percent in July to 9.7 percent in August.

The report shows employers in New York state cut jobs at a more modest pace than employers nationwide, the labor department’s Peter Neenan said.

In August 2008, the state’s unemployment rate stood at 5.7 percent, the city’s at 5.9 percent, and the nation’s at 6.2 percent.

While New York City’s unemployment rate jumped from July to August, the state’s other metropolitan areas all saw rates hold steady or drop slightly.

The number of nonfarm public and private sector jobs in the state decreased over the month by 3,800, or less than 0.1 percent, to 8.6 million in August. Nationally, the number of jobs decreased 0.2 percent over the same period.

Over the past year, the state has lost 167,500 nonfarm public and private sector jobs, or 1.9 percent.

Governments added the most jobs of any sector over the past year, with 39,700. The education and health services sector was second, adding 31,800 jobs.

The biggest losers over the year were trade, transportation and utilities, losing 64,200 jobs; professional and business services, losing 51,500; and manufacturing, losing 45,200 jobs.

Doug Turetsky, communications director of New York City’s Independent Budget Office, said the uptick in unemployment was no surprise. In fact, the job losses haven’t been as bad as many had forecast, he said.

“When we did our last forecast in May, we were projecting 250,000 job losses from the fourth quarter of 2008 into the middle of 2010,” Turetsky said. “The Bloomberg administration said we were being too optimistic, but it turns out we were too pessimistic. The losses are around 100,000, and it seems unlikely that’s going to double.”

But the greatest number of job losses in the city have been in the highest-paying sectors of securities, professional services and information.

“Things are still quite uncertain,” Turetsky said. “We can’t read too much into one month’s numbers at this juncture. Clearly, we’re not out of the woods yet, nor are we likely to be for some months.”