The Mayor touted the news that NYC's unemployment rate dropped to 4.3% last month, saying, "News that our average unemployment rate in 2006 was the lowest on record is yet another example how New York's recovery from 9/11 is exceeding our wildest dreams." The unemployment rate has been below 5% September through December, which Crain's says is the "first below-5% performance since the 1980's." (The record low was in October, when the rate was 4.1%.) And in December of 2005, the NYC unemployment rate was 5.8%.
While low unemployment sounds good, some critics questioned the data. City Councilman Charles Barron told the NY Sun that neighborhoods filled with minorities still have very high unemployment rates. And workers' rights group Jobs with Justice pointed out that some people, though employed, do not make a living wage or have health insurance.
How is the unemployment rate calculated? It's based on surveys from household and employers. Here is the official NY State Department of Labor press release.




What is this??
unemployment rate driooed ti 4.3% last month, saying, "News that our average
Did the mayor actually say driooed?
driooed ti?
The Mayor forgot his medication this morning; if you saw the conference on NY1, you'd know Jen was being accurate.
keep your day job jen, with spelling and editing skills like that it's a wonder you're employed at all!
driooed ti? sorry, I thought I was on gothamist, not helsinkiist.
As an addition to the article, if you have a weird inkling or any curiosity towards the latest numbers:
To be considered part of the work force, and therefore the employment database, the worker must be actively searching for work while unemployed (I believe for a month?). Those who are not actively searching for jobs whether it be by discouragement, incarceration, or personal reasons, are not counted towards the workforce and thus the unemployment data. I thinks parts of military are also discounted from the unemployment numbers.
Congratulations on finding an error and pointing it out in the comments! You must be so proud! A special congratulations go out to all of the dittoheads who independently spotted the error after Marie and still needed to post a comment!
Congratulations on finding an error and pointing it out in the comments! You must be so proud! A special congratulations go out to all of the dittoheads who independently spotted the error after Marie and still needed to post a comment!
As an addition to the article, if you have any curiosity of the latest numbers:
To be considered part of the work force, and therefore the employment database, the worker must be actively searching for work while unemployed (I believe for a month?). Those who are not actively searching for jobs whether it be by discouragement, incarceration, or personal reasons are not counted towards the workforce and thus the unemployment data as well. I think parts of military are also discounted from the unemployment numbers.
congrats to a special typist for managing to post twice - retard!
"City Councilman Charles Barron told the NY Sun that neighborhoods filled with minorities still have very high unemployment rates."
Way to state the obvious. How about another one: Hip Hop wannabe, basketball and hustling won't get you of out the ghettos.
no, get_on_the_short_bus, you are the retard for making assumptions. as gothamist regulars know, there have been problems posting comments. long delays in uploading the postings has led folks to re-post.
as for the spelling bee wizards - either go on the national spelling bee circuit or just stop reading this damn blog. as a "special typist" already implied, ooooooh, you guys are sooooooo smart, "spesh-shuhl," and witty. do you want gold stars on your comments, *ssholes?
It does make Gothamist look very unprofessional to have all of these errors. No one is perfect, and you probably don't want to have to hire a Copy Editor, but if you would just use spellcheck, this wouldn't happen.
So can Gothamist tell us why it is that there are long delays in posting comments? It's no wonder that post-ers do it twice. The processing makes it look like the server or browser is hanging.
There are some issues with the server as well as crazy comments spam that the server is trying to ward off. Thank you for your patience!
Spam comments alone could tie up the server. Have you considered using a Captcha for posting comments? That would (should) eliminate nearly all spam attempts.