Hiring is finally on a solid upswing in the Big Apple for the first time in three years, according to a new jobs report.
The strongest hiring is in education, health services, leisure, professional and business services, although Wall Street is still lagging, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said yesterday.
The report – covering job activity from March 2003 to March 2004 – said that the overall unemployment rate in the New York-New Jersey area has skidded to 6.0 percent, matching the national rate of 6.0.
The local jobless rate historically is higher than the national jobless rate.
The metropolitan area economy added 59,800 jobs in the 12-month period through March, following job increases of 45,100 in the 12 months through February and 20,200 in the period through January.
Hiring on Wall Street itself was weak in March, compared to March a year ago, with payrolls slipping to 430,200 from 432,500.
Government payrolls in New York City’s five boroughs declined in the 12-month period, dropping to 550,000 from 556,400 a year earlier.
The biggest job gains in the five boroughs were for teachers and health care workers, where payrolls rose to 674,900 from 664,800 a year earlier.
In the overall New York-New Jersey area, including Long Island, non-farm employment totaled 9,543,200 in March, a gain of 59,800 jobs, or 0.6 percent, from a year-ago level.
That local jobless rate drop of 0.6 percent slightly outpaced the national rate’s drop of 0.5 percent in the period, the report said.
The jobless rates carved out for each part of the metropolitan also showed improvement in March with more hiring.
For the five boroughs, the jobless rate improved to 8.1 percent from 8.7 percent a year earlier, and New Jersey’s jobless rate dropped to 5.2 percent from 6.2 percent last March.
On Long Island, unemployment edged higher to 4.6 percent from 4.2 percent a year earlier.