BUFFALO, N.Y. — Covid-19 has devastated local economies across the nation, but only a couple of metropolitan areas have been harmed more severely than Buffalo.
New figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicate that the Buffalo area has suffered the third-worst employment decline of any major American metro. Only Detroit and Grand Rapids have been hit harder.
The Buffalo metropolitan area, which includes Erie and Niagara counties, lost 23.3% of its private-sector jobs between April 2019 and the same month this year, according to preliminary BLS figures. April 2020 was the first complete month to be affected by the Covid-19 economic shutdown, so this year-to-year comparison is the first to expose the full extent of the resulting damage. You can read the full story on Buffalo Business First's website.