Jobless Numbers: Good News for State, Not so Much for Binghamton

9/21/2012 (Updated 9:10:13 PM)

Some good news for New York State when it comes to the economy. 

The State Department of Labor has released a report that it has regained all of the private sector jobs that were lost in the recession.

First time unemployment claims are down 10% from a year ago. 

New York's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.1% in August.

Since January New York has added more than 102 thousand private sector jobs and almost 350 thousand since November 2009.

In the Binghamton area the news isn't so positive. 

The area lost 600 private sector jobs during the period of August 2011 and August 2012. 

And the latest unemployment rate shows this area's non- seasonally adjusted rate around 9%.

But analyst Christian Harris says he's optimistic.

"Locally we are encouraged by the statistics we've seen as so far this year, but we've got quite a ways to go to get where we were
pre-recession as far as the job levels go, as far as the unemployment rate being at that low we had before the recession." said Christian Harris, an Analyst with the NYS Dept.of Labor.

New York State is only one of 5 states that have regained all of the private sector jobs that were lost in the recession.


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