New York State
Department of Labor

Albany, NY (May 19, 2011) -

New York State's economy grew by 43,800 private sector jobs, or 0.6%, in April 2011 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the State Labor Department reported today. This was the state's largest monthly increase since September 2000. Since the start of New York's economic recovery, the state has added 162,600 private sector jobs, or 49% of the jobs lost during the April 2008-November 2009 recession.

In April 2011, New York State's total nonfarm job count increased by 45,700, or 0.5%. The nonfarm job count tracks all jobs in the private and public sectors. It does not count the self-employed or workers on farms.

New York State's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.9% in April 2011, down from 8.0% in March. This was the state's lowest unemployment rate since March 2009. The number of unemployed state residents dropped from 766,700 in March to 753,400 in April 2011.

"Labor market conditions continue to improve in New York State. In April 2011, the state added 43,800 private sector jobs, and the state's unemployment rate dropped to below 8.0% for the first time since March 2009," said Bohdan Wynnyk, Chief of Labor Statistics, Division of Research and Statistics.

Note: When comparing different months, seasonally adjusted data provide the most valid comparison; for example, March 2011 versus April 2011. Non-seasonally adjusted data are valuable in year-to-year comparisons of the same month; for example, April 2010 versus April 2011.

1) Unemployment rates (seasonally adjusted)

New York State's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped from 8.0% in March 2011 to 7.9% in April 2011. The U.S. rate ticked up from 8.8% in March to 9.0% in April 2011. New York City's rate dropped from 8.7% to 8.6% over the month, while the rate outside of New York City fell from 7.5% in March to 7.4% in April 2011.

 

2) Regular Unemployment Insurance (UI), the four tiers of federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC08) and Extended Benefits (EB) data:

 

Some important changes recently occurred in the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC08) and the Extended Benefits (EB) programs. Federal legislation was signed into law, which extended the EUC08 program and 100% federal funding of the EB program through the end of 2011. On March 28, 2011, Governor Cuomo signed legislation into law that allows unemployed New Yorkers to receive federally funded EB through 2011.

 

For the EUC08 program:

• For the three months ending April 2011, New York State's average unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) was 8.0%.
• Because New York State's average unemployment rate for the three months ending in June 2010 fell below 8.5%, EUC08 Tier 4 benefits are available only to people who exhausted Tier 3 by August 15, 2010. People who exhausted Tier 3 after that date moved directly into the EB program.
• Based on the latest amendments to federal law, to qualify for EUC08 Tier 1 people must exhaust regular UI benefits by December 25, 2011. They must claim EUC Tier 1 by January 1, 2012.
• To qualify for EUC08 Tiers 2 and 3, people must exhaust Tier 1 or 13 weeks of Tier 2 by January 1, 2012. Beneficiaries in the EUC08 program may continue to collect UI from the tier of EUC that they are in on January 8, 2012. They can collect until those benefits run out, or until June 10, 2012, whichever comes first, but they may not move to the next tier of EUC08.

For the federally funded EB program:

• People may not claim benefits under the EB program after January 8, 2012. We cannot pay any benefits under the EB program for periods of unemployment after that date.
• If the state's three-month average unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) falls below 8.0%, then the number of weeks of EB available drops from 20 to 13.

Use the department's online Unemployment Insurance calculator to estimate the amount of unemployment benefits due. See the calculator on the Department of Labor's web site or go here:http://www.labor.ny.gov/ui/claimantinfo/UIBenefitsCalculator.shtm

See the table below for beneficiary data for these programs. During the week that included April 12, 2011, 487,235 people (including out-of-state claimants) received regular UI, EUC08, or EB. This includes 446,206 who live in New York State. Residents who received benefits under these programs made up 59% of the total unemployed in the state in April 2011.

 

*Data are preliminary and subject to revision. Note: EUC08 Tier 1 began 7/13/2008; Tier 2 began 2/22/2009; Tier 3 began 11/15/2009; Tier 4 began 2/21/2010. EB began 5/24/2009.
Program and Data Item*	April 2011	March 2011	April 2010
Regular UI, reference week beneficiaries	225,544	261,962	252,979
Regular UI, year-to-date beneficiaries	527,559	482,190	586,867
EUC08, reference week beneficiaries	201,154	206,996	321,809
EUC08, year-to-date beneficiaries	343,377	315,058	504,566
EB, reference week beneficiaries	60,616	64,524	8,435
EB, year-to-date beneficiaries	153,685	140,295	44,547

 

3) Jobs data (seasonally adjusted):

New York State and the U.S., March 2011 - April 2011

Note: All data reported in this section are seasonally adjusted. These data are most useful when comparing different months; for example, March 2011 versus April 2011.

The table below compares the over-the-month change in total nonfarm and private sector jobs in New York State and the United States between March and April 2011 (seasonally adjusted). 

 

4) Jobs data (not seasonally adjusted):

New York State, U.S., Major Regions, and Metro Areas: April 2010 - April 2011

Note: All data reported in this section are not seasonally adjusted. The most valid comparisons with this type of data are year-to-year comparisons of the same month; for example, April 2010 versus April 2011.

The table below compares the over-the-year change in total nonfarm and private sector jobs in New York State, the U.S., the Upstate and Downstate regions, and metro areas in New York State between April 2010 and April 2011 (not seasonally adjusted).

 

Job highlights since April 2010:

• Since April 2010, the number of nonfarm jobs (private and public sectors) in New York State increased by 59,200, or 0.7%. The number of nonfarm jobs in the U.S. increased by 1.1% over the same period.



• The number of private sector jobs in the state increased by 100,100, or 1.4%, over the last year. Over the same time frame, the nation's private sector job count increased by 1.7%.



• Private sector jobs grew by 1.1% over the past year in the 10-county Downstate region. Job gains in the Downstate region were centered in New York City, which grew by 1.4%.



• In the 52-county Upstate region, private sector jobs grew by 1.2% over the past year. Upstate's employment gains were most rapid in the region's metro areas, which grew by 1.3%.



• Over the past year, the private sector job count grew most rapidly in these metro areas:
  • Rochester (+2.9%)
  • Ithaca (+2.8%)
  • Binghamton (+1.8%)
  • Syracuse (+1.7%)


• The Glens Falls (-2.2%), Kingston (-0.9%), and Utica-Rome (-0.7%) metro areas were the only ones in the state to lose private sector jobs between April 2010 and April 2011.

5) Jobs data (not seasonally adjusted):

Change in jobs by major industry sector, April 2010 - April 2011

Note: All data reported in this section are not seasonally adjusted. The most valid comparisons with this type of data are year-to-year comparisons of the same month; for example, April 2010 versus April 2011.

The table below compares the over-the-year change in jobs in New York State by major industry sector between April 2010 and April 2011 (not seasonally adjusted).

 

Highlights among NYS sectors with job gains since April 2010:

• Educational and health services added the most private sector jobs (+43,400) over the past year. Within that sector, job gains were greatest in educational services (+26,800). Health care and social assistance added 16,600 jobs over the year, with gains centered in ambulatory health care services (+9,500).



• Professional and business services (+28,500) had the second greatest increase in jobs between April 2010 and April 2011. Sector job gains were greatest in administrative and support services (+15,800).



• The third largest over-the-year jobs increase occurred in leisure and hospitality (+14,300), where gains were centered in accommodation and food services (+14,500).

Highlights among NYS sectors with job losses since April 2010:

• Over the past year, government lost the most jobs (-40,900) of any sector. Losses were greatest at the local level (-19,600), especially at local school districts (-14,000). Employment losses also occurred at the federal (-14,300) and state (-7,000) levels.



• Construction had the second largest jobs decline (-15,500) over the past year, with job losses centered in specialty trade contractors (-13,400).



• Since April 2010, manufacturing had the third largest jobs decline (-5,100). Sector job losses were concentrated in non-durable goods (-3,500), especially printing and related support activities (-2,600).

 

Note: The responsibility for the production of monthly estimates of state and metro area nonfarm employment by industry moved from the Division of Research and Statistics to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), starting with March 2011 estimates. The estimates made by BLS rely less on individual analyst judgment and more on the use of standard statistical methods. As a result, there may be greater month-to-month volatility in the estimates, particularly for New York State's smaller metro areas. More detailed information on the change is available on the BLS web site.

Many economic data series have a seasonal pattern, which means they tend to occur at the same time each year (e.g., retail jobs usually increase in December). Seasonal adjustment is the process of removing seasonal effects from a data series. This is done to simplify the data so that they may be more easily interpreted and help to reveal true underlying trends. Seasonal adjustment permits comparisons of data from one month to data from any other month.

Labor force statistics, including the unemployment rate, for New York and every other state are based on statistical regression models specified by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. We survey 18,000 business establishments to get jobs data for New York State by industry. The jobs data do not include agricultural workers, the self-employed, unpaid family workers and domestic workers in private households.

 

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