ALBANY – For the first time since the Great Depression, over 9.1 million New York residents were working in 2016, according to a report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Regional growth remains uneven, though, with downstate regions experiencing the highest employment growth while most update regions saw declines.
The report found that while each of the state’s 10 labor market regions saw unemployment decline sharply from 2011 to 2016, in half of those markets, the number of people with jobs also dropped. He said factors could include worker migration or workers dropping out of the labor force.
DiNapoli’s report found that Long Island had the highest labor force participation rate of any region in 2016, at 63.8 percent. Participation in the Hudson Valley and Capital regions also topped 60 percent, followed by New York City.
