"OT" maybe our friends on the east coast need more help!
Friday January 18, 12:27 PM
NYC lost nearly 110,000 jobs in 3 months after attacks
sg.news.yahoo.com
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Still reeling from the World Trade Center attacks, New York City lost another 13,500 jobs in December, pushing job losses in the last three months -- largely in the financial sector -- to 109,700, the city said on Thursday.
New York City's December jobless rate jumped to 7.4 percent, up from 6.9 percent in November, to the highest rate since January 1999.
"The numbers underscore the urgency of the city's need for state and federal government assistance to help the recovery effort," said New York City Comptroller William Thompson.
The 109,700 job loss total in the last quarter of 2001 surpassed the last three-month record of 80,200 jobs lost in the last two months of 1990 and the first month of 1991 -- the last time the biggest U.S. city was in a recession.
City officials had predicted huge unemployment in the aftermath of the September 11 air attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center site that anchored downtown Manhattan's financial district. Some 14,000 businesses around the Trade Center were shuttered or displaced as a result of the catastrophe, which killed an estimated 3,000 people.
The well-paid professionals in the financial, insurance and real estate sectors have taken the brunt of the three-month rise in joblessness, shedding 29,800 jobs since September. |
