The weather was red hot in New York in July, and so was the private sector jobs picture.
Private employers added 29,000 new jobs in the state—the biggest monthly increase in more than five years. The biggest job gains came in the leisure, construction, business services and financial services sectors.
The state reported a net gain of 10,500 new jobs last month, driven by the strong increase in private sectoring hiring. "New York State's labor market regained some traction in July," said Normal Steele, the state deputy director of research and statistics, of today's report.
New York's public sector workers saw the bulk of the pink slips handed out in July. State and local governments, facing large budget shortfalls, slashed payrolls drastically. Statewide government jobs fell by nearly 65,000 during the month, a four percent decline, while education and health services saw a loss of nearly 30,000 jobs.
New York City saw a net loss of 4,400 jobs in July, but unemployment in the city declined slightly to 9.4 percent, in line with the national average. The state's unemployment rate held steady at 8.2 percent. Unemployment is 0.5 percent lower than a year ago, in both the state and the city.
Nationally, at 9.5 percent, the unemployment rate was unchanged from July 2009.
The New York data from July stood in contrast to the government's latest weekly jobless claims report which surged to 500,000 new claims last week, raising concerns about a stalled jobs market.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the complete list of state jobs data for July, Friday morning at 10am ET. Look for CNBC's coverage on-air and online.
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