Queens County Employment Bests NYC
Queens is one of NYC’s Top Employment Performers
December 19, 2012 / Queens Neighborhoods / Employment in Queens / Queens Buzz. Tis the season to be jolly and reflect on what’s happened economically over the past year while contemplating and planning for what lies ahead. To that end we did a bit of research into Queens current economic trends, specifically in the employment area.
Queens Employment & Economy is Diversified
Queens has a relatively diversified employment base. Queens County industries include: 1) transportation facilities such as JFK and LaGuardia Airports, Long Island Railroad stations, a network of MTA subways and buses, and a network of federal, state and local roadways,
2) energy infrastructure including two major power plants along the East River,
3) a growing hospitality section including hotels, a large casino, two horse race tracks, a major league baseball team, thousands of small to large retailers,
4) an array of about 2,200 restaurants,
5) a full service construction industry,
6) some light manufacturing and
7) government / social services / education as Queens is home to about a dozen hospitals [both private & public] and over three hundred public schools.
Click here to read our report on employment, unemployment & industry in Queens.
Queens County Employment Faring Better Than NYC
Queens is one of NYC’s Top Employment Performers
December 19, 2012 / Queens Neighborhoods / Employment in Queens / Queens Buzz. Continued. Queens diversified employment base has enabled the county to fare better than NYC as a whole by about a full percentage point with respect to unemployment. Queens is faring about as well as Manhattan with respect to percent unemployed, but still falls far behind Manhattan in terms of per capita income.
Unemployment In Neighboring Brooklyn & Bronx Higher
Neighboring Brooklyn and the Bronx have unemployment rates that have been trending a couple or more percentage points higher than the unemployment rate in Queens. For example in October 2012 Brooklyn's unemployment rate was 9.9% while it was 12.5% in the Bronx. versus 8.2% in Queens and 7.8% in Manhattan. Brooklyn and the Bronx are the primary contributors to the higher overall NYC unemployment rate. And NYC as a whole, has a higher unemployment rate than the rest of the nation, by a couple of percentage points. See chart above to compare the unemployment rates for Queens County, NYC as a whole, and the U.S. as a whole.
Queens & NYC Experienced About 3% Annual Job Growth - October 2012
NYC added about 100,000 jobs over the past year, with the biggest gains coming from business and professional services [40% of total gains], followed by employment gains in education and healthcare [17% of gains], leisure and hospitality [16% of gains], transportation and utilities [10% of gains], with the rest coming from various other job sources. Financial services, manufacturing and construction were flat to slightly down for the year, while government added 4,000 jobs.
Queens Jobs Growth Categories / Sectors 2012
Queens participated in some of those gains, likely from leisure, hospitality, transportation and utilities; and possibly from healthcare, education and business / professional services. While Queens added jobs, its overall unemployment rate remained about the same year over year; as the Queens labor force expanded by between five and ten thousand to 1,036,000 employed. Queens comprises about 28.6% of the employment base of NYC. The employment base of NYC as a whole is about 3.6 million.
Unemployment in Queens & NYC 2012
While an 8.2% unemployment rate is above the 5% unemployment rate considered ‘normal’ by economists, there has been job growth in Queens County and this growth is expected to continue into 2013. The question becomes whether Queens employment base will grow faster than the expansion of its labor force and bring the unemployment rate down.
The Role of Money in an Expanding Queens Economy
Banking plays a key role in economic expansion. Lately we’ve seen banks getting more aggressive in making loans, which is generally a good sign for economic expansion. But it’s worth noting that we 'hear' [hearsay is not fact] that banks are making loans based more upon historic and future cash flows, than upon asset valuations, although naturally some measure of both is critical.
In any case, prospects for Queens employment in 2013 look somewhat promising, assuming Congress and the President cut a fiscal deal that doesn’t derail the current economic expansion.
During contentious times I tend to think back to our founding fathers [like Ben Franklin shown at left], who first conceived of the radical notion, that men can and should govern themselves. It is why our government has - for centuries - been called the great American experiment. Let us hope that the experiment continues to be a success.
Best wishes for a good year.
2012-12-19
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