State’s job count down a million from December 2020 to December 2019
Leisure and hospitality takes biggest hit with 366,600 job losses
New York State had 1 million fewer people working in December, compared to the December in 2019, according to the state Department of Labor.
Nationally, there were 9,152,000 fewer jobs in December, compared to the previous December.
New York State is seeing some progress with unemployment. The unemployment rate dropped from 8.4 percent in November to 8.2 percent in December, and there were 20,200 fewer people on unemployment in the state, a drop from 764,500 to 744,300. This is the fifth straight month the unemployment rate has declined in the state, according to the DOL.
In the state, New York City is taking the pandemic’s impact on the economy harder than in upstate. The unemployment rate in New York City is 11.4 percent, compared to 5.9 percent outside the city. (The DOL hasn’t released the county by county unemployment rates yet from December. Orleans County’s rate in November was 5.4 percent with 1,000 fewer people were working in the county – 16,800 in November 2019 compared to 15,800 in November 2020.)
The state overall shows 1,018,400 fewer jobs during the 12 months, and the DOL is reporting New York City lost 578,000 jobs during the year. The Rochester metro is down 54,400 jobs, while Buffalo-Niagara Falls has 44,700 fewer positions and Syracuse is down 34,600.
These sectors have experienced the biggest job losses from December 2019 to December 2020:
- Leisure & Hospitality – down 366,600
- Educational & Health Services – down 157,600
- Trade, Transportation & Utilities – down 141,900
- Professional & Business Services – down 141,800
- Other Services – down 53,800
- Government – down 52,400
- Manufacturing – down 38,100
- Financial Activities – down 37,200
- Construction, down 22,400
- Information – down 6,000
- Natural Resources & Mining – down 600
