ALBANY, N.Y.—September job numbers show continued progress in New York’s overall economy, with private sector jobs growing by 135,000 or 1.7 percent over the past 12 months, according to the Monthly Economic Outlook released today by The Public Policy Institute of New York State (PPI). Over this period, New York private sector job growth slightly trailed the national growth rate of 2.1 percent, with several sectors including construction (3.0 percent), education and health services (3.0 percent), and other service sectors (2.2 percent), outpacing national trends. Manufacturing employment continued to fall in New York, by 0.5 percent, or 2,300 positions over the last 12 months, while national manufacturing jobs grew by 0.7% over the same period. However, manufacturing employment saw a 0.5 percent increase in upstate New York, with the Capital Region and Buffalo-Niagara leading the way.
Job growth remained balanced across New York State as well. Year-to-year private sector growth was 1.8 percent downstate (and 2.0 percent in New York City), compared to 1.6 percent upstate. Even so, several major regions, including Syracuse and the Mid-Hudson, have yet to fully recover jobs lost in the 2008-09 national recession.
New York State’s unemployment rate stayed constant at 5.0 percent from August to September, while the national rate declined from 5.3 to 4.9 percent. The highest unemployment rates in New York are in the Elmira region (5.8 percent), the Watertown area (5.8 percent) and non-metro counties upstate (5.3%). However, all three of these areas showed lower unemployment in September than 12 months ago.
“These numbers show that we’re making progress on the state’s economic climate, but have work left to do, especially upstate,” said Heather C. Briccetti, Esq., president and CEO of The Business Council of New York State. “This economic data is important as we prepare for the 2016 legislative session knowing that we will be facing proposals – such as minimum wage increases and other new labor mandates – that would impose significant cost increases on private sector employers.”
The “Monthly Economic Update” and “Regional New York Economic Snapshot” are based on federal and state jobs data, and provide business leaders and state policy makers with data on job growth over the past year, job recovery since the 2009 recession, and longer term job trends.
The Public Policy Institute (PPI) is the research arm of The Business Council of New York State, Inc.