July 25, 2012. Testimony presented to the New York Assembly Standing Committees on Labor, Energy and Corporations, Authorities and Commissions. In sum: Con Ed’s lockout of its skilled workforce is unnecessarily putting the people of New York City and Westchester County at risk of serious electric, gas and steam outages. Con Ed’s actions jeopardize the incomes of thousands of hourly-paid workers and the business activity and viability of small businesses throughout the regional economy. Given the slow recovery from the … (read more)

May 7, 2012. A new report from FPI looks at the importance of jobs in the nonprofit health care and social assistance sector in New York City, and examines how the hardships facing the city’s low-income population – the main constituency served by the nonprofit human services sector – have grown in the wake of the Great Recession of 2008-2009 and the weak recovery over the past three years.

• Full report
• Press release
• Companion report released by the Human Services

March 21, 2012. With a weak recovery, unemployment remains high and hardships have mounted for many New York City women, families and youth. Prepared for the New York Women’s Foundation, this brief finds that three years of state budget cuts have frayed the safety net during a time of growing need, making it harder for low-income women to access income and job supports as well as vital supportive services, and to secure jobs with a future. The governor’s proposed … (read more)

March 6, 2012. Unemployment remains very high in this historically weak “recovery” in NYC, as across the country, and considerable hardships persist. In addition, NYS budget choices and pressures continue to squeeze NYC. The Mayor’s budget can only be described as austere: although needs have grown in the wake of the recession, NYC spending on human services funding has fallen by 10 percent. Income concentration has resumed, underscoring the need for progressive tax reform. NYC’s business tax expenditures have risen … (read more)

October 3, 2011. New numbers from FPI’s Immigration Research Institute show that immigrants make up almost half of all small business owners in New York City. And, immigrants in the labor force are somewhat more likely than U.S.-born workers to own small businesses. Immigrant small business owners are an extremely diverse group, with no single country of origin dominating; in fact, the top ten groups together still make up just 45 percent of the total number of immigrant small business … (read more)

September 26, 2011. Prepared by FPI for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, the latest issue of the BLMR finds that Brooklyn led all boroughs in job creation and in new firm creation over the last decade. During this period, Brooklyn added 50,000 jobs while the while New York City as a whole lost 16,000. The borough added not only hundreds of restaurants and retail shops but also health care, business and professional service companies.… (read more)

September 14, 2011. An article by James Parrott, FPI’s deputy director and chief economist, who writes regularly for Gotham Gazette’s Economy section. Article >>… (read more)

July 20, 2011. This report, the latest on “The State of Working NYC,” finds several crosscurrents in the first year after the job market bottomed out in NYC. Young workers (ages 16-21 and 22-27) gained in the recovery, contrary to the national trend of decreasing employment rates for these age groups. Unfortunately, older workers too bucked the trend: nationally they made small gains, but in NYC they fared worst of all age groups. While NYC’s job growth outpaced the nation’s … (read more)

June 22, 2011. Prepared by FPI  for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, the latest issue of the BLMR looks at immigrant entrepreneurs in Brooklyn by sector. The report finds that there are nearly 14,500 Brooklyn immigrant small businesses across a range of sectors from construction to restaurants, grocery stores, child care services and doctors’ offices. … (read more)

March 25, 2011. New data from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis show that New York State led all states in 2010 in the growth in net earnings. This issue of “Numbers that Count” shows that New York grew fastest and second fastest in terms of net earnings and personal income respectively, well ahead of the national averages.… (read more)