May 2, 2013. A new report from JobsFirstNYC and co-authored by James Parrott, Deputy Director and Chief Economist, Fiscal Policy Institute, and Lazar Treschan, Director of Youth Policy, Community Service Society, takes an in-depth look at both the supply and demand dimensions of the job market faced by New York City’s 18-24 young adult population. Barriers to Entry: The Increasing Challenges Faced by Young Adults in the New York City Labor Market looks at changes in the city’s labor market… (read more)

April 18, 2013. In a special issue of The Nation that includes over 20 stories about New York City under Mayor Bloomberg, a picture is painted of a two-tiered urbanism. The lead story by The Nation’s editors describes the heightened income polarization in New York City and cites data from various FPI analyses, including (read more)

April 5, 2013. Unless disclosure requirements are clarified, we’ll probably never know exactly how much Walmart and other large, low-wage employers receive in government subsidies under New York’s new Minimum Wage Reimbursement Credit (MWRC). But based on the best data available, we estimate that Walmart is likely to receive MWRC subsidies of between $53 million and $85 million over the next five years.

New York’s new MWRC will provide employers a tax credit for the hours worked by students between… (read more)

March 25, 2013. This was to have been the year New York caught up with the 19 other states and the District of Columbia with a minimum wage above the $7.25 an hour federal level. Minimum wage legislation that passed the Assembly also would have indexed the minimum wage in future years—as 10 other states do—so that inflation would not steadily erode its purchasing power. However, the agreement reached over the weekend in Albany falls far short. It increases the… (read more)

March 18, 2013. Earlier this month the NYS Department of Labor released its annual revisions to the employment and unemployment data. As noted in an earlier blog entry, New York’s private payroll employment growth was revised upward and government employment was revised to show the loss of 59,000 state and local government jobs between December 2010 and December 2012.

In the revised unemployment data for 2011 and 2012 released by the Department of Labor, the unemployment trend replaces… (read more)

March 13, 2013. A report by the National Employment Law Project and the Fiscal Policy Institute shows the dangers of watering down the $9.00 plus indexing minimum wage proposal, which has the backing of most New Yorkers and majorities in both the Senate and the Assembly.  The report details the greater benefits for workers and the state economy from an increase to $9.00 an hour with indexing compared to the proposal for an $8.75 an hour increase without indexing:… (read more)

March 11, 2013. A letter to the editor by James Parrott, Crain’s New York Business.

Greg David’s March 4 column (“Inequality debate doesn’t reflect reality”) could have been titled “Economists agree NYC’s inequality is very high and poverty is up; some think it’s a problem.”

Fiscal Policy Institute reports have documented this reality: The local economy has fared better than the nation overall in the recovery, yet inflation-adjusted median incomes here have plummeted by 8%, more than for the… (read more)

March 8, 2013. The New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL), in its press release yesterday on the latest employment data, emphasized some good news—that New York State has had 17 consecutive months of private sector job growth, and that the state gained an estimated 29,600 private sector jobs in January (on a seasonally adjusted basis.)

Nothing wrong with reporting good news. There was more good news in NYSDOL’s annual payroll employment revision that was also released yesterday.… (read more)

March 5, 2013. Part I of the budget briefing on Mayor Bloomberg’s Preliminary FY 2014 NYC Budget makes the following points:

1. Unemployment remains very high in this historically weak “recovery.” NYC job growth better than the U.S., but considerable hardships persist.
2. NYC tax revenues have rebounded, but federal and state aid share declined.
3. State budget choices and pressures continue to squeeze NYC.
4. City-funded expenditures projected to increase 3.4% in FY 2014, with increases in debt service and health

… (read more)

February 8, 2013. One of New York City’s biggest challenges is providing a sufficient number of decent job opportunities to enable its citizens to provide for their families and offer hope of a better life for their children. The city’s pronounced income polarization is fundamentally rooted in the job market. Economic and labor market changes over the years have severely limited the availability of good jobs that provide reasonable health and retirement benefits. These changes, which threaten the survival of… (read more)