Double-Digit Job Growth Fueled by Non-Office Sectors
By Robert Sammons July 31, 2013 6:00 am
reprintsYes, ladies and gentlemen, New York City hit yet another new high in private sector jobs in June (according to NYC’s Office of the Comptroller), topping out at the nice round figure of 3,413,000. Furthermore, job growth has made it into double digits in four out of the first six months of this year. February was the only downer month thus far in 2013, and that was likely a fluke, as a bus strike put a dent in the education figure. For the month of June, the private sector increased by a very healthy 14,700 positions.
On the non-office side, the winners were … leisure and hospitality, which remained red hot and jumped 5,000 positions during the month (tourists as far as the eye can see); education, which was up by 4,800 positions (could be some seasonal adjustment issues at play here); and construction, which increased by 4,600 positions (if you don’t believe me, just check out the scaffolding everywhere).
But on the office side, the loser was … professional services, encompassing a large swath of jobs, including accounting, legal and much of tech/new media. This sector was down by 3,200 positions, only the second monthly loss this year and the sharpest drop since October 2012. In fact, there only have been six monthly losses since the beginning of 2010, which makes the drop in June stand out even more. One month does not a trend make, however, and we could see an adjustment in July or a rebound (monthly estimates can be frustratingly fickle). Information (non-Internet publishing) continued to trend lower in June and has now fallen in nine out of the last 12 months. The bright spot on the office side was financial activities, jumping by 2,000 positions and up in six out of the last seven months—thanks for saving the month, banking and securities (shocker, eh?).
So now that I’ve given you the blow-by-blow on the monthly jobs data, I should mention that longer-term (at least annual) trends are always better for this type of information. And in these, New York City is performing quite well. The best takeaway, in my mind at least, is that office jobs are up by 86,900 positions since the recession officially ended exactly four years ago in June. I love closing on a happy note!
