Unemployment in New York in October was both below the national level and the lowest since just before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center plunged the state into deep recession.

State Labor Department statistics released yesterday showed joblessness at 5.2% last month, lower than the 5.5% rate of the nation as a whole.

It was the lowest monthly unemployment level since August 2001, when joblessness was at 4.7%.

Also yesterday, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi released statistics about state tax receipts between April and October in what appeared to be another good sign for the state’s economy.

Stephen Kagann, the Pataki administration’s chief economist, said New York City’s economy is rallying, and that recovery is fueling the improving statewide jobs figures. Unemployment in October in the city was 6.1%, or 0.8 percentage points lower than in September. That followed another 0.8 percentage point drop recorded in city unemployment in August.

October’s jobless rate contrasted with the city’s 8.3% unemployment in October 2003.

“These encouraging figures appear to represent an accelerating, positive trend,” Mr. Kagann said.

Job gains were made in a number of industries between October 2003 and October 2004, led by the education and health services (23,700 jobs gained), professional and business services; (23,300 jobs); and leisure and hospitality (11,700 jobs), the Labor Department reported.

Manufacturing jobs – chiefly in the chemical and apparel manufacturing sectors – were the largest losers during the last year, down 16,600 jobs in October 2004 from October 2003 levels.

During the last year, private-sector jobs grew by 10,300 to just under 6.99 million.

The last time the state’s jobless rate was better than the national rate was in March 2001,the month most economists use as the starting point of the most recent recession. New York State was already feeling that downturn’s effects when terrorists toppled the twin towers of the World Trade Center. That, in turn, caused a major disruption in the financial services sector of the economy and devastated related industries.

The state Labor Department said that between October 2003 and October 2004,private-sector jobs increased in all areas of the state except for Rochester, Elmira, and western New York.

Among individual counties in October, the Bronx had the highest jobless rate at 8.1%, and Columbia County had the lowest rate at 2.9% last month.

The unemployment figures for New York are derived from monthly surveys of about 18,000 businesses and 3,300 households. Job totals count both full and part-time employment.

Also yesterday, Mr. Hevesi reported that state tax receipts for the first seven months of the current fiscal year were running ahead of the same period in the 2003-2004 fiscal year. Mr. Hevesi said personal income tax receipts after transfers to dedicated funds were up more than 14% over the first seven months of fiscal 2003-2004.

Mr. Hevesi attributed the higher revenues to increases in state income tax rates and “possibly”a stronger economy.

He also found consumer tax receipts up more than 11% and business tax receipts running nearly 19% higher than in the first seven months of fiscal 2003-2004.