While U.S. employment growth has slowed since peaking in 2015, the downturn in New York just in the past few months has been notably sharper. Employment was up by 1.6% in the U.S. in the year-ending November, well below the 2.5% increase seen five years ago. Meanwhile, in New York, employment was up by just 1.1% in November, compared to the 2.9% growth peak this market reached in 2015. This is the seventh consecutive month annual job growth in New York has run below the national norm. Softening momentum in the Big Apple translated into 77,300 new jobs created in the year-ending November. While still ranking #4 nationwide, that was one of the mildest annual employment increases New York has seen since 2011. And while fourth place isn’t terrible, New York is used to residing at least in the nation’s top three. Recent gains in New York were well below the decade average of nearly 95,900 jobs. Pulling down job growth here in the year-ending November were steep cutbacks in the Financial Activities employment sector, while jobs were also slashed in the Mining, Logging and Construction and the Trade, Transportation and Utilities segments.
