The Economy in New York

New York City is the biggest regional economy in the U.S., and has the second biggest economy in the world behind Tokyo. The New York Stock Exchange is the largest in the world. 35 percent of New York's employment comes from financial services. New York is known for their skyrocketing number of foreign corporations that they are affiliated with. Even with all these accomplishments, New York’s Governor, David Patterson, said clearly, “New York is in a recession.”

Everyone is feeling the pressures of the economy, whether they have lost their job or fear being laid off. Unemployment is spreading throughout the U.S. like a plague. Although New York as a state is not doing too well in the employment category, some cities are feeling the heat but are still able to maintain a low percentage of unemployment. The Glen Falls area is one of them, with numbers increasing in unemployment from July 2007 to July 2008, from 3.8 percent to 4.9 percent. The percentage throughout the state was actually worse off, with numbers being 4.9 percent to 5.4 percent. The Glen Falls metropolitan area is believed to be in good shape, because of tourism in the summer and jobs that are available all year round. Saratoga County is not doing too bad, either. They actually have the lowest percentage of unemployment in New York.

There have been about 200 federal examiners that have been working hard in some of our nation's largest banks. They wanted to see how the banks would do if a recession was to occur and continue. There are good results, as well as downfalls. They are conducting a “stress test” for the banks, but overall, they believe that everything is going to turn out okay.