The region's economy was entering phase two of the reopening process in mid-June, when restaurants such as Forty Thieves in Buffalo were opening to outside seating.

It is going to be a long, hard climb out of the hole the Covid-19 pandemic carved into the Buffalo Niagara job market.

While the region has made good progress recovering the jobs that were lost when the pandemic sent much of Western New York into lockdown in March, the gradual reopening of the economy has meant that the recovery has been equally gradual.

New data released Thursday by the State Labor Department shows just how gradual it has been, and how far we have to go to get back to where we were.

So far, we've regained about 42,000 of the jobs that were lost since the coronavirus plunge began. That is good progress, but it means we have only regained about 40% of the 104,000 jobs we lost during the first month of the pandemic. We're still down 77,000 jobs from a year ago, which means about 1 of every 7 local jobs vanished in a matter of months.

We still have a long way to go to get them all back.

"You initially thought it was going to recover fairly quickly, but now it doesn't look like that will be true," said Fred Floss, a SUNY-Buffalo State economist.

The jobs report provides a snapshot of the Buffalo Niagara job market in mid-June, just as the economy was entering phase three of the reopening process. That's when restaurants were opening to inside seating and places like nail salons and massage therapists reopened.

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Analysis: For the job market, signs of progress but a long way to go - Buffalo News