New York second in U.S. in October job growth

New York helped to lead the country to employment growth in October, adding 40,600 jobs, the second-highest increase among 41 states that saw employment expand last month, a federal report released Tuesday showed.

Texas took the No. 1 spot, with a 47,900 monthly job increase, the Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed.

While the report showed improvement, the data were a reminder of how volatile the employment-market recovery has been. In the September report New York ranked No. 2 for job losses, with a 37,600 decline.

James Parrot, chief economist for the Fiscal Policy Institute, an Albany-based research group, said the New York's job growth has been concentrated downstate, particularly in New York City. And he added, "Long Island has benefited."

In fact, with the October report from the state's Labor Department, the Island logged its seventh straight month of job growth, albeit modest increases.

The Island had 10,900 more private-sector jobs last month than in October 2009. But overall employment, or nonfarm jobs, was knocked down to 5,700 jobs because of government-job cutbacks.

Nationally, Nevada topped the list of states with the highest unemployment rate last month - 14.2 percent. New York's rate according to the federal government was 8.3 percent in October on a seasonally adjusted basis, that is it is adjusted to account for monthly swings.

SEE PHOTOSSee who got hired, promoted on LI

Parrot, who cautioned against drawing conclusions from one month of data, said that long-term statistics also show that "New York State has been doing better than the national average and better than most states." But he said unemployment remains high.

And the state's job market could worsen before it gets better, Parrot said, because of more government cutbacks.