Newsday from New York, New York • 35

QUARTERLYJECONOMIClRERORTi 35 a i I 3 A quarterly statistical snapshot of the economy Plus and minus signs indicate the economic impact an equal sign is neutral Gross City Product TotaJ output of goods and services ki New York remained stagnant at year-end Hist-quarter Employment The city lost less than 1 past 12 months That's the smaHest decline In three years figures are averaged over 12 months to smooth seasonal factors The percentage of the city's work force seeking -a job remains above year-ago levels Figures are not adjusted for seasonal variations 14 figures aren't available Consumer Prices The regional inflation rate is lower and the gap with national inflation has narrowed Construction Private construction started the year with a bounce off the depressed level or 1992 Figures are averaged over 12 months to smooth Retail Sales A 7 percent gain in December sales broke a losing streak at the end of 1992 First-quarter numbers aren't out yet Figures are averaged over 12 months to smooth seasonal variations 344 335 Lending Commercial and industrial loans issued by the city's largest banks to domestic customers show Sales Tax tsofai rising Reports of an out by rising Vacancy Rate The percentage of high-grade corporate office space for rentsli stuck in neutral upturn in retail sales are borne sales tax collections Figures are 12 months to smooth seasonal variations over Figures are averaged no sign of any recovery for each month $133 182 181 fu-v The Corporate Urge to Merge Brings With It the Need to Purge By David Henry STAFF WB2TES DF YOU COULD wad up the setbacks and advances in the recovery of the New York economy nH call it -wnaihing the name would probably from other Wall Street wrecks For example Smith Barney picked up brokerage offices of Dread Burnham Lambert the junk-bond house gone bust It was the end of this kind of consolidation that executives throughout the city awaited impatiently They wished fbr word that Wall Street was hiring again issuing pay raises and signing leases in new office buildings Those wishes began to be fulfilled ty last year when Wall Street firms increased their New York City payrolls by about 5300 jobs or roughly 4 percent of the local total and racked up and structural changes at large companies1 James Parrott chief economist fir the Economic Policy and Marketing Group In one example of the push fir higher productivity NYNEX the parent of New York Telephone is looking fir ways to do its current work with thousands fewer employees Moves such as will slow the recovery but should encourage companies to invest in new businesses For the moment Parrott said he is encouraged by recent guns in payroll employment which he figures i about 600 jobs in the first two months of this was up about oJxjo joos tne met two montns or uu Strange uncomfortable coming off the tongue But the new retail brokerage house moniker is an apt result of the hugglo to finally shake off the devastating effects of the stock and junk bond market crashes of the late 1980s Combining the firms of Smith Barney Harris Upham and Shearson Lehman Brothers not just redundant names but redundant employees perhaps 2000 to 8000 in the city who may lose their jobs The pin of such consolidations was supposed to be over by now five years after the stock market crash After idl it was right after the 1987 crash that Shear-aon Lehman Brothers took over the battered firm of BF Hutton and became Shearson Iriiman Hutton Shrym aUmmufavi about 6000 jobs then in what was dearfy a necessary step toward cleaning up the Wall Street excesses rnvoalnd by crash And it was Smith Barney Harris Upham that had qnWJy built up its own business by salvaging pieces year And initial damn fir unemployment insurann been much below year earlier he said While some analysts have worried about the inflation rate exceeding the Parrott examined the data and found little reason fbr concern The local rate is running higher he said because of increased prices for fruits and vegetables gas and electricity and transportation not broad costs such as rising wages that would indicate the city is becoming lev competitive The recovery he added a little bit better than razor thin but it is not quite a solid foundation fir wrmtimmd expansion at ft" vi Hiirnghf Smith move into the new but bankrupt 1585 Broadway office building at 48th Street But last month's announcement by Smith Barney that it is taking over the brokerage business of ailing Shearson Ionian showed that Wall Street still has some wounded firms and that the recovery from a four rear rwwwkw is rfH faiUmJimt Smith Bn SuSoTorthe redunSjoUwill wipe out mufh of last gain in industry employment As for 1585 Broadway Smith Barney is moving into a pair of underused Shearson buildings in TriBeCa i think going to continue to aee downsizing.