Home > About BNE > Press Room > 2007 Archive > December > Area continues to create jobs

Area continues to create jobs

Despite growth, rate of unemployment up

By Dave Robinson
Updated: 12/21/07 8:28 AM

A surge in hiring at local financial services firms helped the Buffalo Niagara region add jobs for the 11th straight month and extend its longest streak of job growth in seven years.

While the region added jobs at a 0.4 percent annual rate during November, the pace of job growth has slowed markedly from the 0.7-percent increase the region averaged during the first seven months of the year.

“We’ve seen decent strength in the private sector. Manufacturing is still down,” John Slenker, the state Labor Department’s regional economist in Buffalo, said Thursday.

The region added 2,000 jobs over the last year, but a spike in the number of people looking for work pushed the local unemployment rate to up to 4.5 percent from 4.3 percent in October.

As it has for most of this year, the bulk of the job growth came from the finance and insurance industry, which has added 3,600 jobs over the last year, a jump of nearly 13 percent. Educational and health services also remained strong, adding jobs at a 3 percent annual pace.

All of the growth came from the region’s service-providing businesses, which have expanded their employment by 0.8 percent over the last year. That offset the continued struggles by the region’s manufacturers, which shed 1,900 jobs over the last year at a 3.1 percent annual pace, despite stability in factory employment from October to November.

While retail jobs still were down by 0.2 percent from a year ago, Slenker said he expects the strengthening Canadian dollar, which is acting as a magnet for cross-border shoppers, to help spur more holiday hiring at local retailers.

“I’m anticipating more normal holiday activity . . . because the last few years have been fairly weak,” he said.

Although the pace of job growth locally is stronger than it has been since just before the last recession hit in 2000, it still lags well behind the increase in jobs both nationally and across New York.

Job growth here last month was half of the 0.8 percent increase statewide, and was almost a third less than the national growth rate of 1.1 percent.

Among the state’s 14 major metropolitan areas, the Buffalo Niagara region’s job growth over the last year was slower than all but Albany and Rochester.

The weakened local unemployment rate matched the 4.5 percent seasonally unadjusted jobless rate nationally and was slightly worse than the 4.4 percent rate statewide.

Here are the unemployment rates for November, October and November 2006 for the eight counties of Western New York:

• Allegany — 5.1 percent, 4.8 percent and 4.3 percent.

• Cattaraugus — 4.9, 4.5 and 4.4.

•Chautauqua — 4.4, 4 and 4.

• Erie — 4.4, 4.2 and 4.3.

• Genesee — 4.6, 3.9 and 4.

• Niagara — 5.1, 4.6, and 4.6.

• Orleans — 5.2, 4.5 and 4.6.

• Wyoming — 4.3, 3.5 and 4.1.

drobinson@buffnews.com