As unemployment continues to rise here, Westchester County officials last week announced plans to spend $2.7 million in federal stimulus funding for youth employment and job training programs for dislocated workers. With additional money sought for energy conservation measures, those stimulus projects combined could create more than 2,000 jobs, according to county officials.
Unemployment climbed again in February in the lower Hudson Valley and across New York state, where joblessness reached its highest level in more than 15 years, while national unemployment in the deepening recession surpassed the state”™s and region”™s.
Unemployment in Westchester County rose to 7.5 percent in February, compared to 4.6 percent in February 2008, according to the state Department of Labor. As in January, Putnam County had the state”™s second lowest rate for the month, at 6.8 percent, though the number of unemployment benefits claims there was up 2.6 percent compared to a year ago. Rockland County had a 7 percent jobless rate in February, up 2.5 percent year over year.
Both unemployment in New York City and statewide climbed to 8.4 percent in February. The city”™s jobless rate rose 3.9 percent year over year, while the state”™s was up 3.4 percent.
The national unemployment rate reached 8.9 percent in February, compared to 5.2 percent in February 2008.
State Department of Labor analysts said the state”™s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in February reached its highest level since June 1993 and was the largest over-the-month increase on record. New York City’s seasonally adjusted rate in February was at its highest since October 2003 and its over-the-month increase also was a record. Outside of New York City, the February jobless rate in the state was the highest since September 1983.
The state has lost almost 150,000 jobs in the last six months, according to Labor Department researchers. In the Putnam-Rockland-Westchester labor market, 651,500 workers were employed in February, down 4,000 from January and a decline of 16,300 jobs, or 2.4 percent, from February 2008.
With consumer spending slowed, retail store workers in this region suffered the heaviest job losses in February. Department stores, clothing stores and general merchandise stores each lost 700 jobs in their trade category since January, with department stores showing the largest over-the-month percentage loss at 9.9 percent. Clothing stores shed 800 jobs in the one-year period, a 9.4 percent drop.
Food and beverage businesses in the three counties shed 200 jobs from January, as did health and personal care stores. Grocery stores laid off an additional 300 workers in February, dropping employment numbers 4.9 percent from February 2008.
In the largest job-sector decline in the tri-county region, the recession has led to 900 layoffs at employment services firms from February 2008 through this past February, a 14.3 percent decrease.
Through February, utilities, educational services and health care and social assistance were the only job sectors in the three counties that had increased hiring year over year. Utilities added 1,200 jobs, a 2.4 percent increase. Educational services employment rose by 1,800 jobs in February from the previous month, to 25,600, a 7.6 percent increase. A total of 1,100 educational positions were added in the region since February 2008, a 4.5 percent increase. Health care and social assistance employment rose by 1,600 jobs over the one-year period, a 1.8 percent increase.
The Westchester/Putnam Workforce Investment Board agreed last week to spend $2.7 million in stimulus funding channeled through the state Labor Department on youth summer employment and career training, help for adult and dislocated workers and job training in growth fields such as energy and health care.
Westchester County Executive Andrew J. Spano said businesses will receive full funding to hire more than 250 young people from low-income families this summer and half of the cost of on-the-job training for up to 100 permanent workers. In addition, 130 workers will be placed in training programs for high-demand, high-paying jobs such as nurses, radiological technicians, energy auditors, construction apprentices and network technicians.
County officials said they also have applied to the state for $41.4 million in stimulus money for 16 energy-saving projects that could create more than 1,700 jobs. They range from replacing lighting, windows and obsolete boilers with more energy-efficient models to a comprehensive energy assessment and greenhouse gas emissions audit. A project at the Yonkers wastewater plant would convert gas created in the treatment process to electricity.
