Area loses 3% of jobs, fastest pace in 8 years
Unemployment drops slightly to 8.3%
Published: November 20, 2009, 12:30 am
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The Buffalo Niagara region continued to lose jobs during October at the fastest pace in nearly eight years, the state Labor Department reported Thursday.
While the pace of the local job losses didn’t worsen for the first time in five months, the region’s employment market remains in its weakest state since 2001, and the local unemployment rate of 8.3 percent is the highest for any October since the mid-1980s.
With the region shedding three of every 100 jobs over the last year, the recession has claimed a total of 16,900 jobs since October 2008.
Thanks to significant job cuts at local manufacturers and construction firms, the region now has fewer jobs than it has had during any October since 1993. The 48,000 local workers who were unemployed last month were the most in at least 20 years.
“Manufacturing is still where we’re being hit, and in construction, too,” said John Slenker, the Labor Department’s regional economist in Buffalo.
The bright spot in the department’s report was that the region’s unemployment rate inched down from 8.4 percent in September. But even that bit of upbeat news had a darker side, because jobless rates typically decline from September to October as school-related hiring ramps up, and the drop this year was less than half the size of the average decline over the last 20 years.
The unemployment rate in Erie County slipped to 8.2 percent in October from 8.3 percent in September. The jobless rate in Niagara County dipped to 8.6 percent last month from 8.8 percent in September.
The 3 percent pace of job losses in the Buffalo Niagara region was the third-fastest among the state’s 13 major metro areas, with only Glens Falls and Nassau-Suffolk counties shedding jobs more rapidly.
The region is losing jobs faster than the state, which has shed 2.7 percent of its jobs over the last year, but is faring better than the nation as a whole, where the decline in jobs is running at a 4 percent annual rate.
Within other Western New York counties, job losses were most severe in Allegany County, where they fell by 2.7 percent, followed by a 1.2 percent decline in Cattaraugus County and a 0.9 percent drop in Chautauqua County. The number of jobs in Wyoming County slid by 0.7 percent.
Genesee County added jobs at a 0.8 percent annual rate, one of only three rural counties to increase employment during October.
Nearly four out of every 10 job losses in the Buffalo Niagara region came from local manufacturers and construction firms, which have been hit especially hard by the recession and tight credit markets.
The region had 8 percent fewer construction jobs last month than it did in October 2008, while factory employment was down slightly more than 8 percent, with declines at the local auto plants accounting for a significant portion of the drop.
Employment also was weak at local stores and wholesalers, which had almost 5 percent fewer jobs than they did a year ago with consumers cutting back on their spending as credit tightened and job losses mounted.
Among the few bright spots in the local job market were a 6 percent increase in professional, scientific and technical jobs, as well as a 1 percent increase in education and health services employment.
Slenker said companies remain cautious about hiring, with the vast majority of new hires being brought on to replace other workers who have retired or moved on.
“It’s tougher to find jobs,” Slenker said. “Companies don’t need to advertise as much to find qualified people. Qualified people are coming to them.”
Here are the unemployment rates for other Western New York counties for October, September and October 2008:
• Allegany — 8.1 percent, 7.9 percent and 5.6 percent.
• Cattaraugus — 8.7, 8.5 and 5.8.
• Chautauqua — 7.7, 7.8 and 5.3.
• Genesee — 7.3, 7.1 and 5.2.
• Orleans — 7.9, 8.2 and 6.1.
• Wyoming — 8, 7.9 and 5.3.
drobinson@buffnews.com
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