New York City Jobless Rate Falls to 7.3%; Unemployment Level Is Lowest in Five Years
The unemployment rate in New York City fell to its lowest level in more than five years in August as the city added jobs in industries that usually pay healthy salaries, such as financial services and manufacturing.</br></br>The jobless rate, which has been diminishing the past several years, fell last month to 7.3%, the lowest since January 2009, according to the state Department of Labor. The national unemployment rate was 6.1% in August.</br></br>"One of the worries is that there hasn't been much wage growth because the mix of jobs has been toward lower-wage jobs," said Ken McCarthy, senior managing director of economic analysis and forecasting for real-estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield Inc. "You are starting to see job growth in higher-paying, better-compensating positions, which is also good for the economy."</br></br>Some economists, however, cautioned against giving too much weight to the 0.5 percentage-point drop in unemployment from July to August. They noted the number of those employed and seeking jobs also dropped significantly month to month.</br></br>Building construction jobs were up 1,100 or 3.2% for the year ending in August, and the category of specialty trade contractors rose by 5,100 jobs or 6.3%.