The New York State Department of Labor said the New York City added 27,000 private sector jobs in April, dropping the consistently high unemployment rate from 9.7 percent in March, to 9.5 percent. The national unemployment rate is 8.1 percent.
About half of the city’s drop in the unemployment rate was caused by a decrease in the number of unemployed residents, while the rest is attributable to a decline in the number of people looking for work, said James P. Brown, principal economist for the Labor Department. People have to be trying to find jobs to count as unemployed. But when the prospects for finding work are poor, some people give up searching.
And according to analysis of data by Eastern Consolidated, the city has gained 60,000 private sector jobs so far in 2012, The New York Daily New reports, which is the biggest four months of job growth in the city since the 1950s.
The construction industry added 4,700 jobs in April, while the leisure and hospitality industries added about 7,800 jobs.
Wall Street cut about 1,000 jobs in April.
"New York City's private sector job gains are the best in 60 years and represent another hopeful sign for our economic recovery," said Mayor Bloomberg in a press release. "Just this week, we unveiled a new map showing hundreds of tech startups that are hiring; Major League baseball decided to hold a major tourism event with enormous economic impact here; and six new primetime television shows that will be filmed in New York and employ thousands were picked up by networks. Industries like tech, tourism and entertainment are helping to diversify our economy, and that means all New Yorkers will have better opportunities in the long-term."
On Tuesday, Bloomberg and New York City's chief digital officer, Rachel Sterne, revealed an interactive map that shows available tech jobs across the city. Check out the "Made In NY" map here.
New York City now has the fastest-growing tech industry in the country, and is second only to Silicon Valley as the breeding ground for new startups.