NEW YORK (AP) -- The economic recession is no respecter of academic credentials, with the city's most educated workers are joining the ranks of the unemployed.
The latest state labor statistics show more than 35,000 college graduates drawing unemployment benefits. An analysis by The New York Times found that the number of city residents in that category has risen 135 percent in the past year, almost twice the rate of increase for people who didn't finish high school.
The Times called this part of a national trend showing the rate of unemployed college graduates doubling in the 12-month period ending in March. But it's more pronounced in New York City, where the financial services industry _ the same one that spurred economic growth in recent years _ has been hard-hit with layoffs and downsizing.
The city's unemployment rate went from 6.9 percent in January 2009 to 8.1 percent in February, the biggest one-month change on record, the paper said.
It quoted James Parrott, chief economist for the Manhattan-based Fiscal Policy Institute, as saying such increases in better-educated workers drawing jobless benefits is something not seen in previous recessions.
Moreover, there is no sign of the trend reversing itself, the report said. The Times cited a recent prediction by the city's Independent Budget Office that the financial sector of the economy will continue to lose jobs through the first half of 2010, even if other areas show improvement.
Rae Rosen, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, told The Times that each job on Wall Street helps generate two or three other jobs in the metropolitan area, and job losses in the financial sector have a ``ripple effect'' on the less educated workers, where the unemployment rate already is highest
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