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Jobless Rate in Region Improves Significantly

Dropped to 7.6 percent in April, state reports

By David Robinson

NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER

May 25, 2011

The unemployment rate in the Buffalo Niagara region dropped to 7.6 percent in April — the lowest for any month since the end of 2008, the state Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The jobless rate in Erie and Niagara counties improved from 8.1 percent in March and was better than the 8.3 percent rate in April 2010. It was the lowest unemployment rate for any month since joblessness began spiking at the end of 2008 and the lowest April unemployment rate in three years.

The improvement comes as the region has been steadily — but slowly — adding new jobs. Jobs within the Buffalo Niagara region have increased for eight straight months. The latest figures, released last week, showed that the region has gained 2,100 jobs over the last year — a 0.4 percent annual growth rate.

“It’s a slow recovery, but it’s a recovery,” said John Slenker, the Labor Department’s regional economist in Buffalo.

Jobs within the private sector, which excludes government agencies, have grown for 13 straight months and have expanded at a 0.8 percent annual pace. That offset the loss of 1,200 government jobs over the last year— a 1.2 percent decline — as cash-strapped agencies scrambled to cut costs, and temporary census jobs that bolstered hiring a year ago came to an end.

The jobless rate dropped, in part, because the region has about 5,200 fewer unemployed workers than it did a year ago, but 16,000 more than it did before the recession started hammering the job market four years ago.

As a result, the region has a long way to go to get its job market back to where it was before the recession began. The April unemployment rate, while improved, still is the third-highest for any April since 1992 and is far above the 5.3 percent jobless rate of April 2008, before the recession’s effect began.

The region still has 11,400 fewer jobs than it did in April 2008. It will take more than five years to recover those losses.

drobinson@buffnews.com