Economic Trends & Policy Archives - Page 2 of 33

The American Rescue Plan and the New York State Budget

The year 2021 began under the threat of a historic state budget shortfall of $15 billion. Compounded by municipal and county-level fiscal stress, it imperiled funding for public services and employees – a terrible risk as New York continued to experience the social, emotional, and fiscal impacts from the pandemic. The governor’s proposed Executive Budget featured an “if-then” scenario that reflected a minimum level of $6 billion in federal aid and assumed a remaining $9 billion difference. At the same time, the governor requested $15 [...]

Anthony Troia2021-03-11T16:54:05-05:00March 11th, 2021|Blog, Economic Trends & Policy, Federal Tax & Budget, State Budget, Tax & Budget|

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 [...]

Anthony Troia2021-03-16T16:24:20-04:00February 12th, 2021|Economic Trends & Policy, Employment, Unemployment & Job Quality, Federal Tax & Budget, FPI in the News, Immigration|

Biden Urged to Legalize Migrants as Part of Infrastructure Plan

FPI joined with more than 60 economists to urge President Biden to create a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the soon-to-be-released economic and infrastructure plan. Such an action not only benefits those individuals, but the experts also explain that this action would help our economy by raising wages and increasing productivity and tax revenue. The economists, including President Barack Obama’s former top economist Jason Furman and David Kallick of the Fiscal Policy Institute, which champions liberal economic policies, made the proposal in a [...]

Anthony Troia2021-04-06T09:56:44-04:00February 12th, 2021|Economic Trends & Policy, Federal Tax & Budget, FPI in the News, Immigration, New York State, Other States & National|

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 [...]

Anthony Troia2021-01-19T12:19:29-05:00January 19th, 2021|Blog, Economic Trends & Policy, State Budget|

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 [...]

Anthony Troia2021-03-16T15:59:04-04:00January 3rd, 2021|Blog, Economic Trends & Policy, Employment, Unemployment & Job Quality, FPI in the News, Immigration, New York State|

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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T09:42:54-05:00December 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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T09:45:19-05:00December 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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T09:46:32-05:00December 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 (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 board are struggling to stay healthy, educate our children, and deal with financial insecurity of [...]

Anthony Troia2021-04-06T12:28:07-04:00November 24th, 2020|Economic Outlook, Immigration, New York State, Other States & National, 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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T09:50:13-05:00November 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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T09:54:20-05:00October 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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T09:53:25-05:00October 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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T09:54:58-05:00September 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 [...]

Anthony Troia2020-12-30T10:00:11-05:00August 7th, 2020|Blog, Economic Outlook, Governance|