NYC Unemployment Rate Up to 5.8%

In what the state labor department calls the "largest month-to-month increase in more than 30 years," New York City's unemployment grew 0.8% to 5.8% for August. Not surprisingly, the NY Times finds, "Many of the layoffs came in the tumbling financial sector, which is one of the city’s biggest employers and the provider of nearly one-fourth of its annual wages and salaries." Keep in mind, layoffs for Lehman and the resulting Bank of America-Merrill Lynch deal will not appear until later. The state unemployment rate is 5.8%, up from 5.2% in July; the national unemployment rate is 6.1%.