<!--Mark Scheer--><table width="234" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/niagaragazette/images/byline_234x60.jpg" height="60"><tr><td><div align="center"><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By Mark Scheer</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:mark.scheer@niagara-gazette.com">mark.scheer@niagara-gazette.com</a></font></div></td></tr></table>
Niagara County’s employment situation showed signs of improvement last month, according to the latest job statistics from the state Labor Department.
Figures released on Thursday show a slight drop in the county’s unemployment rate, from 9.9 percent in April to 9.3 percent in May. Countywide unemployment remains considerably higher than a year ago in May when the rate was 6.6 percent. The Labor Department’s county-by-county unemployment figures are not seasonally adjusted.
The decline in the local unemployment rate came as somewhat of a surprise to the county’s Employment and Training Director Paul Parise who noted that more than 600 people attended a county job fair held Wednesday in Lockport. Parise said the county’s employment offices in Lockport and Niagara Falls continue to be flooded with requests from individuals seeking work.
“We haven’t seen any decrease in demand, that’s for sure,” Parise said. “There are still an awful lot of job seekers and not a lot of opportunities right now.”
Statewide, unemployment reached a 16-year high, increasing from 7.7 in April to 8.2 percent in May. It is the highest seasonally adjusted rate since February of 1993. By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in May was 9.4 percent, up from 8.9 percent in April.
“New York state remains in recessionary mode, as evidenced by the latest labor market data. Nonetheless, the state continues to remain well below the national unemployment rate,” said Peter A. Neenan, Ph.D., director of the Division of Research and Statistics for the Labor Department.
The number of unemployed state residents jumped over the month by 51,000 to 802,400 in May, the highest number since July of 1976.
Gov. David Paterson seized upon the release of the bleak employment figures as an opportunity to remind representatives in New York’s fractured state Senate that residents are counting on them to do their jobs. The Senate has not held a working session since last week’s Albany coup.
“Enough is enough,” Paterson said. “If senators do not wish to go to work, there are more than 800,000 New Yorkers ready to take their jobs — and salary — today.”
Paterson called on Senate members to get back to work so several economic concerns can be addressed, including an extension to the state’s Power for Jobs program.
“This is not a time for politics and power grabs by lawmakers,” he said. “This is a time for action, and placing the people’s interest above personal interests.”
New York state’s seasonally adjusted private sector job count decreased over the month by 20,400, or 0.3 percent, to 7,102,000 in May 2009. The numbers show that the state’s private sector job count has now dropped for nine consecutive months. Since the state’s private sector job count peaked in August 2008, New York has lost 212,200 private sector jobs, erasing more than half of the 400,000 jobs added during the state’s last economic expansion from 2003 to 2008.
