Helped State Reach Another High
In December 2012, New York State’s economy added 34,300 private sector jobs, the State Department of Labor reported.
This addition brings the state’s overall year-to-date private sector job gain to 123,200. Additionally, this job growth resulted in New York reaching an all-time high private sector job count of 7,353,000.
Between November and December 2012, New York State’s unemployment rate fell from 8.3 percent to 8.2 percent. The rate in New York City remained unchanged at 8.8 percent in December, while the rate in the balance of state region (New York State outside of New York City) dropped over the month from 7.9 percent to 7.8 percent.
“The New York State economy closed out the year with 34,300 private sector jobs added in December and 123,200 added to the state’s economy in 2012. In addition, the state’s unemployment rate continued its downward trend in December,” said Bohdan M. Wynnyk, deputy director of the Division of Research and Statistics.
Since December 2011, the number of private sector jobs in the state increased by 119,800, or 1.6 percent. Over the same time frame, the nation’s private sector job count increased by 1.7 percent.
In the 10-county downstate region, private sector jobs grew by 1.9 percent over the past year. Within the downstate region, jobs grew by 2.4 percent in New York City and by 0.9 percent in the suburban counties.
In the 52-county upstate region, the private sector job count grew by 0.2 percent over the past year, with job growth occurring in both the region’s metro areas (up 0.2 percent) and in counties outside of metro areas (up 0.7 percent).
Professional and business services added the most jobs (up 47,900) of any sector between December 2011 and December 2012. Sector job gains over this period were focused in administrative and support services (up 24,600), and professional, scientific and technical services (up 20,300).
Private educational and health services (up 33,800) had the second largest increase in jobs over the past year. Sector employment gains occurred in both educational services (up 19,400), and health care and social assistance (up 14,400).
Over the past year, construction lost more jobs (down 6,900) than any other industry sector in the state. Construction sector job losses were concentrated in heavy and civil engineering construction (down 3,700) and specialty trade contractors (down 3,100).
Employment losses in the manufacturing sector (down 5,800) were greatest in non-durable goods (down 4,100), especially chemical manufacturing (down 2,900).
During the week that included Dec. 5, 2012, there were 413,721 people (including 381,194 who live in the state) who received unemployment insurance benefits. State residents who received jobless benefits made up 48 percent of the total unemployed in the state last month.
On Dec. 9, 2012, the Extended Benefits (EB) program ended in New York State. EB provided up to 20 weeks of benefits to claimants who exhausted their Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits. Prior to Dec. 9, 2012, unemployed claimants who exhausted
EUC would move into the EB program.
Claimants who exhausted EUC on Dec. 9, 2012 or later, and could not establish a new claim for regular unemployment insurance, exhausted all entitlement to jobless benefits.
The EUC program was extended by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which was signed into law on Jan. 2. Since the recession, the EUC program has provided as many as 47 weeks of benefits in four different Tiers. Currently, only the first three Tiers are available in NYS, with a maximum of 37 weeks.
All are encouraged to use the Department’s online Unemployment Insurance calculator to estimate how many weeks of benefits they may receive.
The calculator can be found at www.labor.ny.gov/ui/claimantinfo/ UIBenefitsCalculator.shtm.
