Labor Market & Workforce

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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T09:54:20-05:00October 14th, 2020|Blog, Healthcare, Labor Market & Workforce, 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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T09:54:58-05:00September 28th, 2020|Blog, Labor Market & Workforce|

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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T10:06:58-05:00July 20th, 2020|Blog, Labor Market & Workforce, 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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-21T15:27:18-05:00June 15th, 2020|Fact Sheets, Labor Market & Workforce|

New York’s Public Sector Workforce Threatened by Lack of Federal Aid

New York’s public sector workforce is comprised of many of our state’s essential workers: nurses, teachers, firefighters, personal care aides, childcare workers, and more. In total, 24 major occupational groups – defined as having 10,000 or more workers – are part of the sector. A recent economic news release from BLS indicates that over 100,000 public sector workers in New York were laid off from their jobs between February and May of 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic and declining state revenues. Characteristics of New [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T13:37:56-05:00June 13th, 2020|Blog, Fact Sheets, Labor Market & Workforce|

NYS Unemployment Factsheet for April

New York State’s April 2020 unemployment rate stood at 14.5 percent – up from 4.1 percent in March -and was the state’s largest recorded monthly increase since 1976 when the current record-keeping began. In the seven weeks between March 10 and April 25, 2020, New York State processed over 1.5 million initial unemployment insurance claims from residents, which represents more people than the entire population of the state of Maine. Look for more monthly factsheets covering unemployment in New York State. Read the factsheet here.

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T13:36:51-05:00June 13th, 2020|Fact Sheets, Labor Market & Workforce|

Unemployment Insurance Taxes Paid for Undocumented Workers in NYS

May 14, 2020 In the midst of a pandemic, there has been a growing call for undocumented immigrants, who make up five percent of the New York State labor force, to be covered by some form of unemployment insurance. What is often overlooked in discussions of unemployment insurance is the extent to which undocumented immigrants are already part of paying into the existing system, even when they are excluded from collecting benefits. Undocumented immigrants face the same challenges as other workers. It does not serve [...]

Anthony Troia2021-04-06T09:48:24-04:00May 13th, 2020|Blog, Healthcare, Labor Market & Workforce, Migration, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

New York’s Unemployment System Depends on Continued Federal Assistance

May 11, 2020 Following the Great Recession, New York's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund only achieved a positive fund balance for the first time in fiscal year 2016. On January 1, 2020, the balance stood at $2.65 billion, but the fund was nearing insolvency according to a report by the U.S. Department of Labor. Since the COVID-19 pandemic mitigation began eight weeks ago, over 1.7 million New York residents have filed for unemployment, which is roughly 5 percent of the nation’s total filings and represents more [...]

Anthony Troia2023-02-06T20:16:47-05:00May 11th, 2020|Blog, Economic Outlook, Labor Market & Workforce, Must Read, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Press Release: Spotlight on New York’s Essential Workers

April 8, 2020 Overlooked, Underpaid and Indispensible Read the report: https://fiscalpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Essential-Workers-Brief-Final.pdf (Albany, NY) Today the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) released a new report spotlighting New York's essential workers who are on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the new analysis, there are 2.2 million “essential workers” in New York State. Twenty-two percent of these essential workers support their families on low incomes, with family incomes of less than 200 percent of the poverty level. Statement from David Dyssegaard Kallick, Deputy Director, Fiscal Policy Institute: “The pandemic has brought [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T14:00:03-05:00April 8th, 2020|Blog, Labor Market & Workforce, Press Releases|

Press Release: Fair Pay for Farm Workers is Affordable

For immediate release: Tuesday, May 28, 2019 Media Contact: communications@fiscalpolicy.org, 518-786-3156 The new report: "Farm Workers' Overtime Pay is Affordable and Long Overdue" New Report Shows that Fair Pay for Farm Workers is Affordable Our state can end the archaic exclusion of job protections for farm workers (Albany, NY) Today the Fiscal Policy Institute released a new report “Farm Workers’ Overtime Pay is Affordable and Long Overdue” which looks at how giving farm workers the same rights and protection as other workers, including overtime pay for long hours, [...]

Anthony Troia2021-03-31T15:28:08-04:00May 28th, 2019|Labor Market & Workforce, Press Releases|

Report: Farm Workers’ Overtime Pay Is Affordable and Long Overdue

May 28, 2019. Today the Fiscal Policy Institute released a new report “Farm Workers’ Overtime Pay is Affordable and Long Overdue” which looks at giving farm workers the same rights and protection as other workers, including overtime pay for long hours, would affect farms, farm workers, their local communities and the state. With the end of 2019 legislative session rapidly approaching, the Senate has conducted hearings on The Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act and attention is now shifting to the Assembly. California, Hawaii, Minnesota, and Maryland already include overtime pay [...]

Anthony Troia2021-01-06T10:28:51-05:00May 28th, 2019|Labor Market & Workforce, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Income Divide Runs Deep

April 7, 2019. This article exposes the state's income gap problem by focusing on Saratoga County which has the distinction of being the fastest growing county but also the one with the greatest income disparity Upstate. Prompted by the Economic Policy Institutes's report "The New Gilded Age," the author Wendy Liberatore quotes their data, checks in with local community homeless and housing providers, and the Rev. Peter Cook, Executive Director for the New York Council of Churches, who detail the hardships that accompany the income disparity. [...]

Anthony Troia2021-01-06T10:22:37-05:00April 8th, 2019|FPI in the News, Labor Market & Workforce|

Letter: Research Shows Higher Minimum Wage Good for Jobs

February 1, 2019. In a short rebuttal in regards to the minimum wage and whether it will negatively impact businesses, the author cites several studies that support the economic viability of enacting a higher minimum wage. In one research study, Dube, Lester, and Reich in a study “Minimum Wage Effect Across State Borders,” studied the effect of one state raising minimum wages while a bordering state did not raise its minimum wages and found no adverse effect on employment. A study by the Fiscal Policy Institute [...]

Anthony Troia2021-01-06T09:34:52-05:00February 1st, 2019|FPI in the News, Labor Market & Workforce|