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Region Continues to Add More Jobs

Local Labor Market Shows Slow Rebound

By David Robinson

March 10, 2011

 The Buffalo Niagara region added jobs for the fifth straight month during January -- a sign that the local labor market is slowly beginning to rebound, the state Labor Department reported Wednesday.

The region has added 2,100 jobs over the last year, a 0.4 percent increase from January 2010, fueled largely by hiring at local stores and restaurants that offsets weakness in manufacturing and construction.

While government employment has been dropping as cash-strapped agencies cut back, the local private sector has stepped up hiring, adding 2,600 jobs over the last year for a 0.6 percent annual increase. Private-sector employment in the Buffalo Niagara region has increased for 10 straight months.

The local unemployment rate, which stood at 9.1 percent in January, is down half a percentage point from January 2010 but is higher than the 8.1 percent jobless rate in December. The unemployment rate typically increases from December to January as stores cut back on staffing that had been boosted for the holidays.

The Labor Department also released revised job figures for all of 2010 showing that job losses locally were slightly smaller than it originally reported during January. The revised figures show that the region lost about 300 jobs last year, or about 0.1 percent of its employment base, which is less than half of the 0.25 percent decline originally reported.

The revision is based on more extensive data that the labor department receives from employers.

"I think it's safe to say that, in Western New York's labor market, the recovery has begun," said John Slenker, the Labor Department's regional economist in Buffalo.

While the region still has more than 12,000 fewer jobs than it did at the start of the recession three years ago, the modest job growth has started to cut into those losses.

"It's still going to take a while, but it's definitely going in the right direction," Slenker said. "I look at these as pretty decent numbers."

The revised job numbers for 2010 rank the Buffalo Niagara region in a tie for the fourth-strongest job market among the state's 13 major metro areas, trailing only New York City, Ithaca and Rochester, all of which added jobs last year. The average upstate metro area lost jobs at a 0.4 percent pace last year.

While job growth remains positive, Slenker warned that the recent spike in gasoline prices could hurt the region's already struggling manufacturers and cause consumers to reduce their discretionary spending. Government agencies, which provide nearly 18 percent of all local jobs, also are facing tight budgets that could lead to staff cuts in the coming months.

During January, the unemployment rate in Erie County rose to 8.9 percent from 7.9 percent in December, but that was down from 9.3 percent a year ago. In Niagara County, the jobless rate rose to 10.1 percent from 8.9 percent in December, but was down from 10.7 percent in January 2010.

Among Western New York's rural counties, job growth over the last year was strongest in Genesee County at 1.4 percent and Wyoming County at 0.8 percent. Allegany County added jobs at a 0.6 percent annual pace, while Chautauqua County lost 0.4 percent of its jobs and the decline hit 0.9 percent in Cattaraugus County.

Here are the unemployment rates for the other counties in Western New York for January, December and January 2010:

* Allegany County -- 10.7 percent, 9.3 percent and 10.5 percent.

* Cattaraugus County -- 10, 9.1 and 10.3.

* Chautauqua County -- 9.5, 8.4 and 10.6.

* Genesee County -- 9, 7.9 and 9.6.

* Orleans County -- 11.6, 10.2 and 11.7.

* Wyoming County -- 10.9, 9.5 and 11.5.