The Urgent Need to Raise Unemployment Benefits
Unemployment insurance stabilizes the state economy during economic downturns, but New York’s UI system has been insolvent for decades and UI benefits are inadequate to keep workers out of poverty.
The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Mass Deportation
New York’s economy depends on immigrants, including those without documentation. Deportation of these workers would dramatically decrease affordability and availability of food, homes, and care—all basic needs for New Yorkers.
State Economic Update: Recession Unlikely, Tax Receipts Stable
Recent revisions to economic forecasts have significantly lowered expectations of a recession. This has positive implications for the State’s fiscal outlook, as improved economic performance should translate into higher tax receipts.
Workforce Report: Labor Shortage Mitigation in New York’s Home Care Sector
New York State has been reported to be one of the states most at risk of incurring a shortage of healthcare workers over the next decade. With a quickly growing population of adults over the age of 65 (“older adults”) and a movement towards “aging in place,” the demand for home care workers will rise dramatically over the next decade.
FPI Statement on New NYS Labor Data and Comptroller DiNapoli’s Labor Force Report
Nathan Gusdorf, Executive Director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, today released the following statement: “Recent data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today reveal New York State added 456,000 jobs from June 2021 to June 2022, which represents a 5.1% annual increase — making New York the fifth fastest growing job market in the United States."
Economy Shows Improvement, but Employment Needs Time to Recover
Read the full report here: Economy Shows Improvement, but Employment Needs Time to Recover Several measures show signs of gradual improvement for New York residents as the state emerges from the covid-19 recession. One such indicator is the steep decline of new unemployment insurance claims, which had recently peaked in winter this year. Another such positive indicator is the continued gradual decrease in the statewide unemployment (U-3) rate, which peaked at 16.2 in April of 2020 as a result of pandemic-induced layoffs and business closures. The [...]
State and Local Employment in New York, Cut in the Pandemic, Has Been Down for a Decade
Read the full report here: State and Local Employment in New York, Cut in the Pandemic, Has Been Down for a Decade State and local government employment is vital to our economy and our quality of life. State and local governments—and their employees—exist because New Yorkers have decided over generations that we need people who are dedicated and trained to teach our children, clean our streets, protect our communities, maintain our highways and bridges, and perform hundreds of other jobs. The number of public employees [...]
Fact Sheet: State and Local Government Employment Has Been Largely Static, With Full-Time Jobs Eliminated in Critical Areas
Full-time employment in state government jobs grew by only 1 percent in New York State between 2010-2019, with the number of those employed totaling just over 236,000 in 2019. At the same time, local government employment decreased by 1 percent for full-time employees, with the number of employed totaling just over 882,000 in 2019, down from 893,000 in 2010. Full-time employment losses in both state and local government affected the areas of health, natural resources, and social and public welfare. Employment losses in health and [...]
Fact Sheet: Black New York Workers Have Been Hit Hard By The Pandemic Statewide
THE COVID‐19 PANDEMIC HAD AN UNPRECEDENTED EFFECT ON THE JOBS AND INCOMES OF NEW YORK STATE RESIDENTS, in addition to upending social norms and taking the lives of thousands. However, the pandemic’s burden was not evenly distributed across our population. The Fiscal Policy Institute found that Black workers statewide, who already had a higher rate of unemployment prior to the pandemic, experienced even greater losses. Our first analysis compares the employment measures among Black New Yorkers between March to November 2019 and March to November [...]
Fact Sheet: New York State Must Invest in Not‐for‐Profit Service Providers to Protect New Yorkers and Advance Equity
The Social Assistance subsector includes workers who provide direct and vital social assistance services to consumers, including vulnerable and at-risk populations and communities. It consists of the following industry groups: Individual and Family Services; Community Food and Housing, and Emergency and Other Relief Services; Vocational Rehabilitation Services; Child Day Care Services.1 In 2019, there were nearly 380,000 people estimated to be employed in New York’s social assistance subsector by not-for-profit, government, and private employers, 133,000 of whom (35 percent) were employed by not-for-profits. In New York State, total not-for-profit employment is largest in the Individual and Family Services and Child and Day [...]
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: New York’s Share of the Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Fund
Read the full report: The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: New York’s Share of the Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Fund The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 includes $350 billion in aid for states, territories, and tribal governments for the purpose of alleviating the fiscal stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the $350 billion, $195.3 billion is allocated for payments to states, $130.2 billion for city and county governments, $20 billion for tribal governments, and $4.5 billion for territories. These coronavirus fiscal recovery funds [...]
Economists Push Biden On Path To Citizenship For Undocumented Immigrants
FPI joined a letter from economists urging the Biden Administration this week to include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in upcoming legislation. The letter highlighted that such an action would benefit the nation as a whole. Benefits would include increasing jobs, productivity, boost wages, and tax revenue. The group of more than 60 signatories includes former Obama economic advisor Jason Furman, Eileen Appelbaum of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and David Kallick of the Fiscal Policy Institute. Read the Forbes article [...]
Long Island’s Immigrants are Integral for its Economic Recovery
County Executive Steve Bellone's editorial in the Long Island Press pointed out the contributions that immigrants make to the area, including the boost they provide to the economy. The Long Island immigrant community is a vital part of our workforce and economy as a whole, with more than half working in white-collar jobs as of 2015. Immigrants make up 18 percent of the combined population of Nassau and Suffolk counties, generating 20 percent of total economic output, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute. Learn more [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]