New York City’s jobless rate rose slightly in March, going from 4.1 percent in February to 4.5 percent. The number of residents with jobs decreased by 21,700 to 3.66 million, according to the adjusted figures. This is the lowest number of available positions in the city in the last seven months. Some economist believe that that this could indicate the turn around of a steady climb in New York City jobs that has been going on for almost five years now.

According to Barbara Byrne Denham, the chief economist for Manhattan based commercial real estate broker, Eastern Consolidated, “the job decline in March, while expected, were considerably minor considering the dire announcements from Wall Street firms and other prognosticators.”

Nevertheless, the number of jobs in New York City in the financial-services sector are still higher than they were in the previous year. Only those that buy and sell securities and commodities had lost positions in the last year.

Manufacturing jobs in New York City also fell by approximately 16,000 positions since March of last year. This industry has mostly likely been effected, as have parts of the financial-services sector, by the struggling housing market. Also decreasing their staff numbers was the professional and business services industry, which did away with around 2,000 New York City jobs.

James Brown, an analyst for the Labor Department, says that “while attention is focused on Wall Street, the recent weakness in professional and business services and manufacturing, both of which are dependent more on the national economy than the local economy, suggests the looming recession is already beginning to adversely affect New York City.”

The state’s unemployment rate also rose from 4.4 percent in March to 4.8 percent. Still New York’s jobless percentage remains under the national average of 5.1 percent.