(Reuters) – Wall Street shed 1,300 workers in September, but New York City’s economic engine still employs more bankers and traders than a year-ago, the New York state Department of Labor reported on Thursday.
Securities and commodities companies employed 169,400 people last month, versus 165,100 a year-ago.
Wall Street’s work force had peaked in December 2000 at 200,300.
Unemployment rates for both New York City and New York state were unchanged in September from August, at 8.7 percent for the city and 8 percent for the state. The rates were down from a year earlier, when the city’s rate was 9.2 percent and the state’s was 8.4 percent.
“Over the past year, New York State has added nearly 100,000 private sector jobs,” said Bohdan Wynnyk, deputy director of the Labor Department’s Division of Research and Statistics, in a statement.
New York City’s overall financial activities sector, which includes insurance, commercial banking and credit intermediation, cut 1,900 positions in September, but the workforce remained higher than a year earlier — at 439,200 versus 431,000.
Employment in the government sector, under pressure to balance budgets, was down by 21,000, while the construction industry cut 300 jobs.
On the upside, the information industry added 8,100 jobs, boosting its work force to 162,600. Those jobs typically pay much less than those on Wall Street.
And in a move typical for September, employment in educational services rose, with 12,300 jobs added. The health care and social assistance sector was flat.
The trade, transportation and utility sector hired 9,300 people, while retail trade hired 3,700 workers.