ALBANY – While a Labor Day report from state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said the workforce is at its highest since before the Great Recession, the growth is only happening in New York City and Long Island.

And New York's workforce is not only older, it is growing at a slower rate than the rest of the nation.

DiNapoli's "Study: Labor Force Trends in New York State," appears to provide welcome news about the overall employment health by noting that 9.1 million people were employed in 2016, the highest number since 2008. The state's unemployment rate last year was also slightly lower than the rest of the nation at 4.8 percent.

But New York City and Long Island were the only regions that saw increases between 2011 and 2016 in their labor forces. Hudson Valley was about level, with the Capital Region experiencing about a 1 percent decline in the number of people working.

Meanwhile, the Mohawk Valley, Central New York and the North Country saw more than a 6 percent decrease in the workforce, with the Southern Tier experiencing the largest drop at 9 percent, according to data the comptroller's office used from the state Labor Department.

While unemployment is an indication of the number of people who have spent about a month actively looking for a job, an overall decline in the labor force signifies people either moving to another part of the state or leaving New York all together; those who have aged out of the workforce, or people who have decided to stop working entirely.

"Statewide, employment is growing and unemployment shrinking. But ensuring good job opportunities for all New Yorkers remains a challenge, " DiNapoli said in a statement.

The comptroller said declines in labor force can threaten the long-term vitality of local communities.

"This trend could also result in fiscal and budgetary issues for the state and local governments," the report said.

New York's labor force has grown 1.5 percent in the last decade, compared with 3.4 percent nationwide. And New York's workers tend to be older; those aged 65 and older rose 26 percent over the past five years, compared to 19 percent nationwide.

Last year, New York also had one of the lowest percentages of participation among eligible workers in the nation, 60.4 percent of the population, ranking it 40th in the country.

There were bright spots in the Labor Day report, however – namely New York has slightly more women in the workforce than the national average, and that 40.6 of New York workers have bachelor's degrees or higher, compared with 34.7 percent nationwide.





