For the first three months of 2011, New York City has consistently been making job gains. The unemployment rate is at a two-year low, and the city’s jobless rate is currently at 8.7%, far below many still recovering cities across the nation.

Many of the job gains were due to weather conditions, such as those in the construction sector. Entertainment venues, such as restaurants, and retailers were also able to increase their numbers of employed workers as people ventured out to spend money at their establishments.

Jobs in various other industries, from finance to media to many private businesses, have also added jobs in the city. Thousands of jobs have also been added in advertising.

Next door in New Jersey, spending  have also been increasing. Reports indicate that workers in New Jersey are making more money, in turn encouraging them to shop and expand numbers of people hired as well. That said, more people were looking for work in the state in March than in February.

The trend we Midwesterners notice is that things tend to hit the coasts before they hit us, so hopefully a little bit of that Big Apple luck will spread across the rest of the country and help lower the joblessness rates around here, too.