Regional Economy and Trends in Household Debt, February 14, 2011 – William C. Dudley, President and Chief Executive Officer – Remarks at the Quarterly Regional Economic Press Briefing, New York City
“Much of this recent weakness in employment stems from job losses in the retail, wholesale and manufacturing sectors in our region. In the rest of the nation, these sectors expanded during the last quarter. Moreover, our state and local governments cut jobs much more severely than governments did elsewhere. At the same time, job gains in some of the region’s strongest sectorsprofessional and business services, finance, education and healthwere not large enough to completely offset these losses. At this point, it is difficult to say whether the recent pause in job growth is short-lived or not…Meanwhile, unemployment rates have ticked down across the region. Given the disappointing job numbers, it is not surprising that this change is largely due to a decline in labor force participation. In the fourth quarter of 2010, the labor force of both New York and New Jersey declined by about 0.3 percentage points, meaning that fewer people were actively seeking work. December’s unemployment rate in New York and New Jersey, at 8.2 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively, were below the national jobless rate of 9.4 percent for that month, though these rates remain painfully high. Puerto Rico’s 15.7 percent unemployment rate, although down from its high of over 17 percent, still shows little evidence of a sustained improvement.”
Related postings on financial system
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.