Qns. Unemployment Rate 7.6%
The New York City economy is growing at a faster rate than the nation’s, a report by City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office found.
Economic data from the first quarter of 2014 show New York City’s Real Gross City Product (GCP) grew by 2.8 percent, while the nation lagged behind at 0.1 percent. The Comptroller’s office produces four quarterly reports on the city’s economy though the calendar year.
“New York City was firing on all cylinders in the first quarter of 2014 even as the national economy stalled,” Stringer said in a statement accompanying the findings.
“The economy is picking up in the Big Apple as unemployment falls and real estate heats up, which helps us boost our tax revenue,” he added.
For Queens specifically, the data is positive as well, with a 20 percent increase in home sales reported for the period.
The unemployment rate in the borough is also on the decline, the report found. Queens is currently tied in second place among the boroughs for the lowest unemployment rate in the entire city with 7.6 percent jobless, compared to 8.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013, and a slight jump from 7.2 percent in the last period of 2013.
The lowest unemployment is for New York County at 6.7 percent, with the highest in the bronx at 11.6 percent. Queens tied Richmond County for second.
The city’s GCP in the first quarter of 2014 represented about four percent of the nation’s total economic output, although it contains only 2.6 of the nation’s total population, according to the Comptroller. New York City added 18,800 payroll jobs in the first quarter of 2014, after adding 12,100 in the last quarter of 2013. The private sector added 21,000 in the first quarter of 2014, after adding 11,300 in the last quarter of 2013, the report found
The biggest employment sector gains were in education and health services, professional and business services, trade, transportation and utility, and leisure and hospitality.
The city’s total unemployment rate fell to 7.9 percent in the first quarter of 2014, from 8.3 percent in the last quarter of 2013. The unemployment rate has been falling steadily from 9.5 percent in the second quarter of 2012 and is at its lowest since the fourth quarter of 2008, Stringer’s office reported.
The number of employed city residents grew by 31,200, the highest increase in 14 years, the study found.
Comparatively, the total U.S. unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014 and has been decreasing since the fourth quater of 2009 when it was 9.9 percent.
The report is intended to provide an analysis of economic trends in NYC’s economy in a national context, though “time will tell if this momentum will be carried through the rest of 2014,” Stringer said.
