The city’s economy this spring slowed down compared to the same period last year, while the unemployment rate was stayed flat at 7.9%, according to a new report from Comptroller Scott Stringer.
From April through June, the Gross City Product — a measure for the size of the local economy — grew 3.1%, while the spring of 2013 saw a 4.8% economic bounce. Still, the city is catching up from a harsh winter that hamstrung economic performance early in the year.
“As the weather heated up, so did the city’s economy,” said Stringer, whose report said the last quarter had the “fastest growth” since the spring of 2013.
Still, city’s economic growth is forecasted to climb 2.5%, according to a July comptroller report. That is a drop from the 5.5% increase in 2013, which saw $707 billion of economic output, according to Stringer’s office.
In the job market, the sectors that grew were construction, hospitality, education and health services. Meanwhile, manufacturing and information and media industries shed jobs. The total number of jobs added in the quarter rose 2.1%, about even with the entire country.
Though the city is adding jobs, 37,100 more people were on the hunt for work, the largest increase in 12 years, the report said.
Stringer, in a statement, described the city and country’s economic scene as a “prolonged period of steady but modest growth.”
“We must remember,” he said, “these are not the boomtown years of the late 1990s or of the credit bubble years.”
