Unemployment in New York fell in May even as the economy lost private sector jobs, according to a report released by the State Labor Department last week.
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped one tenth of a percentage point to 8.3% last month, the lowest rate since April 2009.
The number of unemployed workers dropped to 806,600 from 817,100 a month earlier.
At the same time the economy lost 9,500 private-sector jobs, the first monthly decline since December.
That drop was offset by a spike in federal jobs as more than 30,100 temporary census workers were hired.
The only nonfarm sectors that did not grow in May were education and health care. Despite the growth, New York had 22,700 fewer nonfarm jobs last month than it did a year earlier.
“Like the nation as a whole, the state’s rate of private-sector job growth slowed in May 2010,” Peter Neenan, director of the Labor Department’s division of research and statistics, said in a press release. “However, New York’s unemployment rate continued to improve, reaching its lowest level in over a year.”
Nationally, the jobless rate fell to 9.7% from 9.9%. In New York City, it fell to 9.6% from 9.8%.
“We know there are still far too many New Yorkers who are without jobs or struggling to make ends meet,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. “But our city is moving in the right direction and will come through this downturn stronger than ever.”
