More Queens residents entered the workforce this year than those from other boroughs.
With 28,200 people from Queens finding jobs from January to August, the borough eked ahead of 27,500 Brooklynites getting work in 2010, according to new Department of Labor data.
But Brooklyn can boast of another distinction: The borough itself didn’t loose jobs at recession’s height from 2008 to 2009. Private sector jobs remained constant around 440,000, while Queens lost 10,000 jobs, dropping to 457,000, according to DOL data.
Carl Hum, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, credited Kings County’s resilience to the health care industry and hotels and restaurants.
“The health care numbers I would expect — that’s recession-proof,” said Hum, whose organization will release a detailed Brooklyn labor report in December. “But a year ago, people thought hotels were dead.”
Brooklyn news, however, wasn’t all rosy: its 10.5 percent unemployment is second highest.
“It’s a reflection of the dual nature of Brooklyn,” said James Parrott, deputy director of the Fiscal Policy Institute. “It has 500,000 jobs but 1 million of the labor force.” Many Brooklynites work in Manhattan financial and professional jobs that took a hit, he noted.
Job seekers are feeling more hopeful. “I was already booking my ticket home to Georgia in defeat with my tail between my legs,” said Jessica Freeman, 25, a librarian from Red Hook. She landed a part-time job last month in NBC’s news division.
