STATE

JOBLESS RATE IN SEPTEMBER LOWEST SINCE OCTOBER 2001

Unemployment dipped to 5.5% in New York state in September, the lowest rate since the weight of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks sent joblessness soaring, the state Labor Department reported yesterday.

The state’s rate was slightly higher than the national jobless rate for the month of 5.4%. Joblessness in New York was 5.6% in August 2004 and 6.4% in September 2003.

State statisticians had mixed jobs news for New York City: The 6.9% rate in September was 0.2 percentage points higher than in August, but well below the 8.5% recorded in September 2003.

Stephen Kagann, the Pataki administration’s chief economist, said the city’s jobs numbers would have looked better in September except for what he called a “statistical anomaly.” He said there was a reported decline of 6,100 jobs in the private education sector in the city last month that he attributed to seasonal fluctuations in employment at colleges and universities in the city in the back-to-school month of September.

Mr. Kagann predicted that the numbers would straighten themselves out in the jobless report for October.

Of New York City’s five boroughs, the September unemployment rate was lowest in Queens at 5.5% and highest in the Bronx at 8.8%. Brooklyn’s September unemployment rate was 7.6%, Manhattan’s was 6.6%, and Staten Island’s was 6.1%

– Associated Press

CITY

MAC BOARD OKAYS CITY’S REFINANCING PLAN

New York City’s much-disputed plan to refinance $2.5 billion in debt moved a step closer to fruition yesterday when the state’s Municipal Assistance Corporation, which floated the original loan some 30 years ago, voted to cooperate.

The nine MAC board members – five appointed by Governor Pataki, and four appointed by Mayor Bloomberg – agreed to accept proceeds of a new bond issue, to be floated in the next few weeks, as full repayment of the 1970s debt.

“We agreed to accept the money,” the chairman of MAC, Jonathan Ballan, told The New York Sun. “We did not endorse the underlying transaction, nor were we asked to, but we cooperated to allow the city to have the burden of the MAC debt be assumed by the state.”

The complex transaction, which state lawmakers approved last year over Mr. Pataki’s objections, essentially calls for the state to pay off the new bonds with annual payments of $170 million through the mid-2030s.

It will save the city $2.5 billion over five years, but cost state taxpayers $5.2 billion over 30 years.

The governor resisted the plan, even after the state’s highest court ruled against his lawsuit, but he conceded defeat and forwarded the first $170 million payment last month. The city has also agreed to refund the first year’s payment once the bonds are floated, since the debt service won’t come due until 2005.

The city is expected to market the bonds to investors beginning next week, and close the sale in early November.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

RETAIL

SEARS POSTS 3RD-QUARTER LOSS OF $61 MILLION AS SALES PLUMMET

Sears, Roebuck & Co. posted an unexpected third-quarter loss and cut its annual forecast, sending shares down and signaling that the CEO Alan Lacy’s strategy to boost sales isn’t working.

The largest American department store chain’s net loss of $61 million, or 29 cents a share, compared with net income of $147 million, or 52 cents, a year earlier, when results included profit from a credit-card unit and tire and battery business that Sears sold.

Revenue fell 15% to $8.29 billion, the biggest drop in more than eight years, the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based company said in a statement.

Mr. Lacy’s purchase of Lands’ End clothing and the expansion of other apparel brands and home furnishings failed to revive same-store sales at the 111-year-old chain, which decreased for the 13th out of the last 15 quarters. Rising fuel prices and unusually cool weather reduced demand, the company said, amid growing competition from Kohl’s Corp. and J.C. Penney Co.

– Bloomberg News