Crain's notes a Deputy Mayor goes off message:
Mayor Mike Bloomberg touted New York's job growth as a model for the nation in a December speech. But Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Bob Steel painted a bleaker picture at Columbia University last week. “Unemployment is worse than [the official rate of] 9%,” he told students, because many people have been out of a job so long that they have stopped looking for work—which brings the unemployment rate down. But they are nonetheless unable to pay their bills. “This is not a situation that is getting better quickly,” Steel said. He pledged to make job creation his top priority.