Buffalo area tops for job growth
Region’s market grew more than rest of state
By David Robinson NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER
Updated: 07/18/08 7:32 AM
Where was the New York State metro area with the hottest job growth in June?
Would you believe Buffalo Niagara? While the region’s job market was
more tepid than scorching hot, the area still managed to add jobs at a faster pace than any of the state’s 13 major metro areas last month, the state Labor Department reported Thursday.
The region’s 0.7 percent annualized job growth rate was more than double the sluggish statewide pace of 0.3 percent as job creation across most of New York slowed. The region’s job market also grew faster than the national employment market, which was flat in June, for the third straight month.
The region’s emergence as the state’s hottest job market — at least for one month — capped a shift that has been evolving throughout this year, reversing the long-term trend that saw job growth here lag significantly behind the statewide and national growth rates.
That gap has been narrowing as the weakening housing market and mortgage woes have significantly slowed the pace of job creation nationally, while the job and housing markets here have been relatively stable.
“We’re holding our own in a very poor economy,” said John Slenker, the Labor Department’s regional economist in Buffalo. “We’re still losing jobs in manufacturing, but the service providing sector has been strong enough to continue adding jobs.”
Buffalo Niagara added 3,800 jobs from June 2007 to June 2008, fueled by a hiring spree by state government and at local schools that accounted for two-thirds of the growth. The region’s private sector jobs grew at a more subdued 0.3 percent annual pace.
May’s job growth was even stronger than originally reported, running at a 0.6 percent annual rate instead of the 0.5 percent pace the labor department reported in its preliminary estimate last month.
But the source of the growth — primarily government-based hiring — took some of the luster off the June job growth, since public sector hiring typically increases the already onerous burden on local taxpayers.
Still, that public sector hiring more than offset the loss of another 1,900 local factory jobs and the disappearance of 800 trade jobs in the region. Hiring also was strong at local hotels and restaurants, an increase Slenker attributed to an influx of students seeking part-time work.
Job growth was generally tepid in other parts of Western New York. The bright spot was in Allegany County, which added jobs at a 1.9 percent annual pace during June, while job growth in Cattaraugus County was triple the statewide pace at 0.9 percent. The 0.4 percent job growth in Genesee County was slightly better than the statewide rate, while it lagged behind in Chautauqua County, where it was flat. Wyoming County lost jobs at a 0.7 percent pace.
The job gains helped trim the region’s unemployment rate to 5.7 percent last month from an upwardly revised 5.8 percent in May. The local jobless rate remained well above the 5.2 percent seasonally unadjusted rate statewide, but matched the national unemployment rate.
The unemployment rate in Erie County was flat at 5.6 percent, while it slipped to 6.2 percent in Niagara County, down from 6.7 percent in May.
Here are the unemployment rates for June, May and June 2007 for other Western New York counties:
• Allegany — 6.6 percent, 5.8 percent and 5.6 percent.
• Cattaraugus — 5.7, 5.8 and 4.8.
• Chautauqua — 5.3, 5.1 and 4.1.
• Genesee — 5, 5.2 and 3.9.
• Orleans — 6.3, 6.5 and 5.1.
• Wyoming — 5.1, 5.4 and 4.
