The nine-year economic growth, the longest in American history, witnessed the creation of 340,000 new jobs nationally in April alone but no where else was the radiance of that news greeted with greater felicity than in the Big Apple. The State Comptroller reported an annual gain in New York City of more than 70,000 jobs in the past three years and an additional 80,000 jobs in the private sector, the largest since New York started monitoring employment in 1958.

For reasons not esoteric, therefore, New Yorkers were simply ecstatic about the news but behind their merriment lay the subtle ironies inherent in any game of numbers. While the national unemployment rate, for example, stood at 3.9 percent, the lowest in the much-trumpeted economic boom, New York’s unemployment figure stood at 6.7 percent, a figure that does not augur well with jubilation.

President Clinton pointed out the social benefits of the benevolent economy among Blacks and Hispanics calling theirs “the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded.” The irony of it all was that the Black unemployment figure changed only slightly to 7.2 percent in April from 7.3 percent in March. The unemployment fingure among Hispanics was equally unimpressive, having fallen to 5.4 percent from 6.3 percent.

It was startling to find out that the 340,000 new jobs created by the national economy were essentially temporary, if not menial, with tens of thousands of workers involved in census taking and restaurant work. Wall Street still drove the national and state economies providing New York City with 4.8 percent of employment and about 18 percent of wages, according to the State Comptroller’s office. While there is nothing wrong in extolling the virtues of a securities-driven economy, our readers should know that the stock market, the cog without which the economy seems impotent, is a parasite that feeds on the psychological angst of consumers, enticing them to spend more and save little.

Yet another piece of irony is that salaries in the securities sector, which provides only 5 percent of the workforce, averaged a staggering $190,000 per year compared with the overrated technology and media; a duality that employed a mere 3.5 percent of the city’s workforce and only generated 5.4 percent of the city’s wages.

Although the Department of Labor reported a shrinking work pool which fell by 426,000, there were still 9.9 million people out there looking for jobs or officially unemployed while others had joined the hapless group defined economically as discouraged workers, having given up looking for work entirely.

Moreover, the economy has brought with it empyrean prices in real estate, and soaring rents for residential and business housing, not to mention declining vacancy rates. Consequently, New York’s long-time residents and businesses are relocating to affordable cities and those cities are reaping the benefits of new businesses and new jobs.