NY pay falls for the first time in 7 decades

If you’re feeling like it’s harder to make a buck these days, you’re not alone.

New York state annual incomes have fallen for the first time in seven decades, dropping 3.1 percent in 2009, according to a report by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

They plummeted “almost twice” as much as those of the nation as a whole, thanks to job losses and salary and bonus cutbacks, especially on Wall Street, he said.

And unfortunately, they show few signs of returning to prerecession levels.

During the recession — August 2007 to August 2009 — the state lost 367,400 jobs, the comptroller’s study also showed. The unemployment rate doubled to 8.9 percent, a 17-year high, but since then it has barely improved, measuring 8.3 percent in August 2010.

New York City had the highest jobless rate of any city in the state during the recession with 9.6 percent. Wall Street and the securities industry lost 4,200 jobs in the first eight months of 2010, according to the study.

On the bright side, New York state’s overall downturn has been less severe than the nation’s. For example, foreclosures here were up 30 percent between 2007 and 2009 as compared to 120 percent nationally.