Syracuse area loses jobs in the last year, other CNY areas mixed

The Syracuse, Ithaca, and Binghamton regions lost jobs in the past 12 months, while the Utica–Rome and Watertown–Fort Drum regions picked up positions in the same period.

That’s according to the latest monthly employment report that the New York State Department of Labor issued Thursday.

The Syracuse region lost 400 jobs between May 2015 and this past May, a decrease of 0.1 percent.

The Utica–Rome metro area added 700 jobs, a 0.5 percent rise, in the same period.

The Watertown–Fort Drum region gained 600 positions in the past 12 months, an increase of 1.4 percent.

The Ithaca area lost 300 jobs in the same 12-month timeframe, a drop of 0.4 percent.

The Binghamton region shed 1,000 jobs between May 2015 and this past May, a loss of 1 percent.

New York state as a whole gained nearly 82,000 jobs, an increase of 0.9 percent, in the last year. The state economy lost 15,000 jobs between April and May of this year, a decrease of 0.2 percent.

Private-sector jobs
The Syracuse region lost 800 private-sector jobs in the last year, a drop of 0.3 percent, according to the state Labor Department data.

The Utica–Rome area added 500 private-sector positions, a gain of 0.5 percent.

The Watertown–Fort Drum region also gained 700 private-sector jobs, an increase of 2.2 percent in the last 12 months, according to the report.

The Ithaca area showed no change in private-sector positions between May 2015 and this past May.

The Binghamton region lost 700 private-sector jobs, a decline of 0.9 percent.

New York state’s economy added nearly 75,000 private-sector jobs, a 1 percent increase in the last 12 months, with most of those positions located Downstate.

However, the state lost more than 19,000 private-sector jobs, a 0.2 percent decrease, between April and May of this year, the state Labor Department reported.

About half of the state’s private-sector job losses in May were “temporary,” due to a strike “in the telecommunications industry,” the department stated in its news release. Verizon workers were on strike during that time.

The state’s private-sector job count is based on a payroll survey of 18,000 New York state employers that the U.S. Department of Labor conducts.

New York state’s unemployment rate decreased to 4.7 percent in May from 4.9 percent in April, the department said in its release. That is New York’s lowest rate since August 2007 and was equal to the U.S. unemployment rate in May.

The federal government calculates New York’s unemployment rate partly based upon the results of a monthly telephone survey of 3,100 state households that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com