Tens of thousands more quit their jobs in New York state

New York state saw 34,000 more workers quit their jobs in March compared to the prior month, as the state’s unemployment rate sits at its lowest point since August.

In March, 195,00 people left their jobs, compared to 161,000 in February, marking the biggest increase of any state in the country. This amounted to a quit rate of 1.7 percent, a 0.4 percent jump from February, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed on Friday.

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New York was followed by New Jersey, which saw an increase of 24,000 people quit their jobs, and Illinois, which witnessed a 16,000-worker spike in those who left their employment.

The Context

New York’s recovery from the doldrums of the pandemic has been steady. The state at one point during the coronavirus-induced economic crisis ranked second in the total figure and percentage of job losses, according to the state’s comptroller’s office.

The unemployment rate has now dropped to 4.3 percent from its high of close to 17 percent in May 2020, according to BLS data.

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Additionally, the labor force participation rate has returned to its pre-pandemic level, a touch over 60 percent.

Government data also shows there were 532,000 job openings in March, an increase of 19,000 compared to the prior month.

Workers leaving their jobs can suggest they’re confident in their ability to secure new employment, and data showing that job openings are increasing may bolster that belief.

Views

In March, Governor Kathy Hochul suggested that the state labor market had recovered from the wounds of the pandemic, four years after the coronavirus decimated the economy.

The state labor department reported that private-sector jobs hit 8.35 million in March.

“With jobs at an all-time high across the state, New York’s economy hasn’t just recovered—it’s been completely transformed,” Hochul said in a statement. “Business is booming, New Yorkers are getting back to work.”

Some experts, however, have suggested that the recovery has not been as widespread as the data would indicate, even as jobs recorded in March were a tad higher than those reported in February 2020.

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“All of the state’s net recovery—and then some—has been concentrated in New York City and the downstate suburbs of the lower Hudson Valley and Long Island,” Edmund J. McMahon, Empire Center’s founding senior fellow, noted in an analysis.

“In the 50 upstate counties, total private employment as of January was still 49,300 jobs below the January 2020 level—continuing a long-term trend in which the metro and rural areas north of the mid-Hudson Valley have fallen further and further behind statewide and national growth trends.”

What’s Next

The state’s economy is expected to grow by nearly 2 percent in 2024, according to a forecast by TD Bank.

The analysts from TD pointed out that New York’s unemployment rate is a percent higher than the national rate and may go up slightly next year.

“We expect the state’s unemployment rate to rise slightly next year to average 4.6 [percent], before a second half rebound leading into 2025 pushes it down to 4.3% in the following year,” they noted.