Boston's Financial Sector Lags, Tourism Leads In Post-Recession Jobs Recovery

BOSTON (CBS) - Boston ranks 92nd among the country's biggest 100 markets in an analysis of the financial sector's jobs recovery since the Great Recession struck in 2008.

In the tourism sector, the picture is rosier.

The local financial sector endured a net loss of 12,800 jobs between April 2008 and April 2011, according to a Bizjournals analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The sector has 185,600 jobs classified as being in the sector, the government states.

Among the markets that have returned to pre-Great Recession head counts:

Dallas-Fort Worth has picked up 2,200 financial jobs since April 2008;  Pittsburgh is up 400; and Tucson is up 100.

The study's three-year span dates to the months before the onset of the recession.

The nation had more non-farm jobs in April 2008 than in any other April since the turn of the century.

But then came the economic downturn in the fall of that year, which hit the banking industry especially hard.

The financial sector is still struggling to recover in 97 of America's 100 biggest markets.

The nation's banking center, New York City, suffered the sharpest blow in terms of raw numbers. It has 52,100 fewer jobs in the financial sector now than in April 2008.

Four other markets are down at least 20,000 financial jobs:  Los Angeles (down 39,300), Chicago (down 34,400), Atlanta (down 24,400) and Miami-Fort Lauderdale (down 22,400).

With its 92nd-place ranking, Boston came in just after Detroit and just ahead of Seattle.

Lisa van der Pool of the Boston Business Journal reports

Boston's tourism industry has bounced back more quickly.

Leading the way is the New York City area, which has added 19,400 leisure and hospitality jobs since April 2008.

Boston saw an increase of 9,700 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector over three years. The government states the market has 226,900 jobs in the sector.