September 18, 2003. Recovery may be finally beginning, but will be hard and slow. As of the fall of 2003, New York workers still face an economy weakened by the combined effects of a national recession, the bursting of the Wall Street and dot-com bubbles, and the economic devastation wrought by the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. These factors have combined to make the rate of job loss over the last two-and-a-half years much greater in New York State than in the nation as a whole. New York’s three “super regions” reflect different economic trends and characteristics. Job stagnation and income polarization across regions and among New Yorkers will constrain growth in the future.