State’s job growth matches nation’s
After dropping far below 2010 levels during the economic shutdown of April 2020, employment as of July had reached mid-2013 levels, the Empire Center notes, while the nation as a whole suffered a less severe job loss and has recovered to the employment level of late 2017.
ALBANY COUNTY — New York State’s job growth matched the nation’s in July, according to figures released today by the state’s labor department.
The number of private-sector jobs in the state increased over the month by 43,800, or 0.6 percent, to 7,496,400 in July 2021, according to a report from the labor department; this was the largest net gain in private sector jobs since March 2021.
Similarly, the number of private-sector jobs in the United States increased by 0.6 percent in July 2021.
At the same time, the statewide unemployment rate decreased from 7.7 percent to 7.6 percent. New York City continues to have the highest unemployment rate; it decreased over the month from 10.6 percent to 10.5 percent. Outside of New York City, the unemployment rate decreased from 5.5 percent to 5.4 percent.
The number of unemployed New Yorkers decreased over the month by 17,100, from 725,700 in June to 708,600 in July 2021.
For the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area, the over-the-year change for nonfarm jobs was 18,600, an increase of 4.4 percent. In July 2020, pandemic restrictions were just beginning to be lifted.
Statewide, the leisure-and-hospitality sector had the largest increase in jobs at 199,200 jobs, an increase of 35.2 percent.
An analysis released Thursday by Edmund J. McMahon, founder and senior fellow at the Empire Center, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit think tank based in Albany, finds that, compared to the United States as a whole, New York State remains much further below its pre-recession employment level.
Both the nation and the state saw private jobs increase .06 percent in July, McMahon notes, stating, “By historical standards, 0.6 percent in a single month is a very high rate of growth — in New York’s case, higher than recorded in any pre-pandemic month since May 2015.”
However, he goes on, “But even if that pace continues, private payrolls in New York State won’t return to pre-pandemic levels until January 2023. By contrast, the U.S. as a whole has been adding private jobs at a pace that will produce a full private-sector employment recovery by early next year.”
