Economic Trends & Policy

Arts Central to New York City’s Recovery

As New York looks to restart our economic engine after the pandemic, the arts and culture play a critical role, especially in New York City. Governor Cuomo underscored that connection in his State of the State and New York State budget announcements. "Cities are by definition centers of energy, entertainment, theatre, and cuisine. Without that activity and attraction, cities lose much of their appeal. What is a city without social, cultural, and creative synergies? New York City is not New York without Broadway.” The coronavirus [...]

Fern Whyland2021-01-19T12:19:29-05:00January 19th, 2021|Blog, Economic Trends & Policy, NYS Budget|

Congressional COVID Relief Bill Offers New York Workers Some Needed Relief

New York State’s unemployed workers will soon see some relief from the federal coronavirus relief bill passed on December 21, 2020. The bill provides $300/week in enhanced unemployment compensation (FPUC). It also extends Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) for another 11 weeks. In October and November of 2020, New York’s unemployment rate stood at 10 percent, with over 800,000 unemployed workers. Those most impacted by layoffs include Black workers (at 14 percent unemployed) and Hispanic and Asian workers (both at 13 percent unemployed). Comparatively, 7 percent of white workers were unemployed. Immigrant workers, a category defined as [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T14:27:01-05:00December 30th, 2020|Blog, Employment, Unemployment & Job Quality|

Factsheet: Expiration of CARES Act Unemployment Benefits Will Harm New Yorkers and the Economy

Unemployment claims for the weeks ending December 5 and 12, 2020, are 23 percent higher than claims from the two prior weeks, November 21 and 28. Unemployment in New York State remains historically high, with initial claims for the week of December 12 rising by as much as 400 and 500 percent in some counties. The remaining enhanced unemployment insurance (UI) programs established under the CARES Act will expire on December 26, 2020. Over 1 million New Yorkers will lose benefits when Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) expire. These programs help workers who [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-30T09:42:54-05:00December 18th, 2020|Employment, Unemployment & Job Quality, Fact Sheets|

Cuts to Employment in the State and Local Public Sector will Disproportionately Harm Women and Black Workers

Governor Cuomo supports reducing state spending citing revenue shortfalls that have been fueled by the economic recession that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. Reduced or eliminated state funding could mean losing public sector jobs that employ workers in communities statewide. This loss would disproportionately impact women and Black workers who constitute the majority of public sector employees. Historically, the public sector has been an essential employer for women and people of color. Public sector employment has offered a stable path into the middle class with regulated [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-30T09:45:19-05:00December 18th, 2020|Blog, Employment, Unemployment & Job Quality|

What Does the December Jobs Report Mean for New Yorkers?

December 2020 The monthly jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor reflected the pandemic’s continuing impact on the job market and the economy. A triad of trouble included job growth remaining slow for the fifth straight month, employers scaling back hiring last month, and a stubbornly high unemployment rate of 6.7%, a slight decrease from October’s 6.9% New York State’s latest jobs report won’t be released until the end of December but looking at the last available report from October makes evident our state follows the same trend [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-30T09:46:32-05:00December 4th, 2020|Blog, Employment, Unemployment & Job Quality|

Holiday Season Underscores the New Yorkers’ Need for Support as Pandemic Deepens Inequity

Read the report: The Pandemic Recession: Hitting Immigrants and People of Color Hardest The Pandemic Recession: Hitting Immigrants and People of Color Hardest (Albany, NY) — The holiday season is beginning in our state as never before with a second COVID wave bearing down on the health and financial stability of New Yorkers. While the COVID-19 is a threat to us all, immigrants and people of color are by far hit the hardest. And undocumented immigrants may be hit harder still since they are concentrated in several of the industries that have seen the biggest employment decline. “New Yorkers across the [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-30T09:48:33-05:00November 24th, 2020|Economic Outlook, Press releases|

NYC Labor Market Took a Hard, Sustained Hit from the Pandemic

New York City Residents were hit harder and longer by the pandemic than those in the rest of the state. While both the city and the state have shown job gains since May 2020, the rebound has been modest. The road to recovery is long. Looking at the Employment to Population ratio (EPOP), we can see both are doing worse than during the Great Recession when the New York state EPOP never dropped below 57.7 percent and averaged 59.3 percent over the whole period. The [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-30T09:50:13-05:00November 10th, 2020|Blog, Economic Outlook|

Medicaid Cuts Would Put 554,000 Essential Workers in New York at Risk

October 14, 2020 Many of New York’s “essential workers,” people working in jobs deemed necessary throughout the COVID pandemic, rely on Medicaid for their own health care. They risk severe hardship if federal policymakers fail to provide appropriate increases in Medicaid funding or weaken protections for program enrollees, according to a new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In New York State over half a million, 554,000, essential workers rely on Medicaid. The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic led to a [...]

Shamier Settle2020-12-30T09:54:20-05:00October 14th, 2020|Blog, Employment, Unemployment & Job Quality, Health Care, Reports, briefs and presentations|

Pandemic Economics Demand A Diverse Response

October 14, 2020 In light of New Jersey's adoption of a millionaires tax to help fill a statewide revenue hole caused by the coronavirus, many asked what about New York? Like New Jersey, New York was hard hit by the pandemic, and its economy continues to suffer. Like New Jersey, New York has historic fiscal problems with a budget shortage of $14.5 billion this year, and in the tens of billions of dollars over the next several years. Like New Jersey, we continue to wait on the federal government [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-30T09:53:25-05:00October 14th, 2020|Economic Outlook, Press releases, Reports, briefs and presentations|

Congress Must Agree on COVID Relief Package in the Next Week

The coronavirus pandemic has hurt us all. It has harmed our physical and mental health and economic well-being. As of September 24, 2020, COVID-19 has sickened over 7.2 million Americans and killed more than 207,000. The pandemic has harmed our economy, causing large-scale business shutdowns, which were ordered to protect public health. Tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs and incomes because of the pandemic, resulting in record-high unemployment rates and a rising need for services in New York State and beyond. Initially, job [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-30T09:54:58-05:00September 28th, 2020|Blog, Employment, Unemployment & Job Quality|

Over 40% of New Yorkers Uncounted as Feds Call for Early Halt to 2020 Census

8/4/2020 On Monday, August 3, 2020, the Census Bureau issued a statement, confirming reports that it plans for all 2020 census counting efforts to be cut four weeks short of what was expected. This is the federal administration’s latest attempt to inject an element of chaos and intimidation into what should be a unifying and democratic process. In April, the Census Bureau asked all households to respond to its 10-question survey either online or by mail. For those who did not respond, there has been [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-30T10:00:11-05:00August 7th, 2020|Blog, Economic Outlook, Good Governance|

New York Must Act Now to Support Excluded Workers

Workers and families left without support for months Read the full report: Unemployment Compensation for Excluded Workers: Helping New Yorkers, Boosting the Local Economy (Albany, NY) State unemployment benefits were expanded in significant ways for most New Yorkers who lost their jobs during the pandemic. However, tens of thousands of New York workers and their families were left adrift without federal or state assistance. The Fiscal Policy Institute’s new report shows that our state can act to create and fund a system to support these workers. [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-30T10:01:49-05:00July 30th, 2020|Economic Outlook, Press releases|

Second Round of Economic Impact Payments Needed

Millions of New Yorkers remain unemployed due to COVID-19. With federal assistance set to end in July, the situation is dire as these payments were used to cover basic essentials for workers and their families - and those who were excluded from CARES Act support and state unemployment assistance continue to struggle. The facts are stark. "Over 9.3 million New Yorkers—48 percent of the state’s population—received Economic Impact Payments (EIP) totaling over $15 billion by May 22, 2020. Undocumented immigrants, as well as married couples [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-30T10:02:38-05:00July 27th, 2020|Blog, Economic Outlook|

Unemployed Workers Set to Lose Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation

Unemployed New Yorkers are scheduled to receive their final Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) checks on July 26, 2020. FPUC was enacted as part of the CARES Act and the legislation set FPUC’s expiration for the end of July. The unemployment insurance (UI) expansions included in the CARES Act were quick and appropriate responses to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The expansions were intended to help tens of millions of workers across the nation who were laid off due to mandatory business shutdowns [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-30T10:06:58-05:00July 20th, 2020|Blog, Employment, Unemployment & Job Quality, Reports, briefs and presentations|

New York State Unemployment Fact Sheet for June

New York State’s average unemployment rate for April and May 2020 stood at 14.9 percent. For the same time period last year, the average unemployment rate was 3.8 percent. In the 12 weeks between March 10 and May 30, 2020, New York State processed over 2.4 million unemployment claims, which is more than 12 percent of the state’s population. Unemployment claims have slowed in recent weeks, but many New Yorkers remain unemployed. As of June 13, the five most racially and ethnically diverse industries have also [...]

Fern Whyland2020-12-21T15:27:18-05:00June 15th, 2020|Employment, Unemployment & Job Quality, Fact Sheets|

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