COVID Recession Hits People of Color Hardest
The latest report in a series from the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs and the Consortium for Worker Education shows that the coronavirus pandemic and associated recession continue to have a devastating impact on New York workers.
Authored by James Parrott, the report finds that despite some gains in recent months, New York City employment remains 17 percent below pre-pandemic levels. While some industries have shown hopeful signs of recovery, jobs have remained low in the arts, entertainment, recreation, and tourism industries, as well as jobs that depend on a thriving office sector. Even though there was an overall gain of jobs in recent months, nearly 50,000 workers each week continued to be displaced from their jobs throughout June and July as small businesses closed or permanently laid off employees.
During the pandemic, New York’s working class and communities of color have been hit hardest, and unemployment rates are no different. Nearly 41 percent of Bronx residents are unemployed, followed by 37 percent in Queens, 33 percent in Brooklyn, 28 percent in Staten Island, and 23 percent in Manhattan.
Making matters worse, the $600 federal unemployment supplement, which added $760 million to the city’s economy, has expired. The supplement accounted for two-thirds of unemployment benefits collected by city workers.
One bright spot has been the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which allows independent contractors, like gig economy workers who are normally excluded from unemployment programs, to collect benefits. Parrott estimates that 600,000 New York City workers were receiving PUA benefits in mid-July, 44 percent of all workers receiving benefits.
The report is the part of an ongoing series by Parrott in partnership with CWE, to assist policy makers and workforce development providers in developing programs to support the workers impacted by recessionary job losses.