Wall Street loses 3,100 jobs in March

By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street shed 3,100 workers in March, shrinking New York City's most important generator of jobs to just 169,200 people, the state's Department of Labour reported on Thursday.

The state, which relies on New York City to power its economy, has now lost more than 40 percent of the 400,000 jobs that employers added in the five-year economic growth spurt that ended in 2008, the Labour Department said in a report.

Unemployment rates in both New York City and New York state were unchanged in March, but a Labour market analyst for the state, James Brown, cautioned against interpreting that steadiness as the start of a more positive trend.

"You can't guarantee it's going to go up evenly in a downturn," Brown said by telephone.

New York City's unemployment rate in March of 8.1 percent is nearly double the year-ago level of 4.6 percent. The state's unemployment rate in March was 7.8 percent, compared with the year-ago rate of 4.8 percent.

Unemployment in New York City topped 11 percent in previous sharp downturns, Brown noted, citing the 1990 to 1991 decline. The unemployment rate in the Bronx, the poorest of the city's five boroughs, hit 10.5 percent in March, down three tenths of a percentage point from February.

The jobless rate for the other four boroughs in March ranged from a low of 7.1 percent in Staten Island to a high of 8.7 percent in Brooklyn.

Economists say each Wall Street job helps create up to three service jobs, ranging from law firms to retail shops.