Westchester County job market mostly flat for January

January was a somewhat surprisingly weak month for the Westchester County job market, posting only a 1 percent increase in job posting activity vs. December, across multiple industries and towns. That followed a December surge that showed a 17 percent increase in job market activity. This news follows in the footsteps of national reports that indicated a weaker than expected level of hiring leading into year end, all of which leaves the county with a shaky start for 2014.

Some key items of note regarding January:

Ӣ White Plains continues to show itself as the hub of job market activity, followed by Yonkers and Tarrytown.

Ӣ The industries most actively hiring this past month continued to be retail, services and health care.

Ӣ Top job categories were sales, health services and IT.

A closer look at the data suggests that much of the positive activity in Q4 2013 was seasonal in nature. The bar was raised through December leaving January with a higher standard to match. As such, the data may not be all that concerning on the premise that the expected reduction in seasonal jobs was offset completely by the introduction of new hiring in the county.

The county posted a 5.2 percent unemployment rate for December (January numbers were not available at the time this article went to press), which is far better than the national numbers reported for January of 6.6 percent. When also compared with state unemployment for December at 7.1 percent and New York City unemployment at 8.1 percent, the county is doing quite well. Overall for 2013 the numbers dropped dramatically from an 8 percent high in January 2013.

All these numbers tell is that the market in the county overall is strong and perhaps continuing to strengthen. The introduction of aggressively marketed tax incentive programs targeted at businesses in the state and those open to coming into the state also set the right foundation for further county job market improvement. Factors like the Affordable Care Act and its predicted negative impact on the hiring behavior of businesses, especially smaller ones, is likely not to be felt until Q3 2014 at the soonest. In the interim the hope is that the county continues to make small strides and show overall stability. Stay tuned.

David Lewis is president/CEO of WestchesterCountyJobs.com, the region”™s most prolific job board with more than 100,000 visitors a month to his network of job boards to view jobs from over 4,000 area employers. You can learn more about Lewis and his team at www.WestchesterCountyJobs.com.