Workforce Participation Near Pre-Pandemic Levels, But Unemployment Still High
More Than a Third of Unemployed Workers Out of Work for 27+ Weeks
New York City lags behind the rest of the state and nation in regaining the jobs lost from the onset of the pandemic in March and April 2020, according to an analysis on the city’s labor force released by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today. By March 2022, the city recovered just under 71% of jobs lost, while the rest of New York state has regained 82% of jobs. By April 2022, the United States had regained 95%.
The city’s unemployment rate remains substantially higher than the rest of the state and nation and higher than its pre-pandemic rate. The slow recovery of pandemic job losses has left the city with an unemployment rate of 6.5%, 2.8 points higher than the February 2020 level of 3.7%, while the nation’s unemployment rate is only one-tenth of a point above its February 2020 level of 3.5%. The remainder of the state reached its February 2020 rate of 4% by October 2021.
“New York City suffered heavy job losses from the shock of the pandemic shutting down many businesses in early 2020, and it has not fully regained these jobs,” DiNapoli said. “The recovery is also uneven and unequal among the workforce, particularly with demographic groups and lower income workers. The pandemic intensified pre-existing inequities that left many unable to work. These issues are complex and will not be easily fixed. They warrant further study and require strong workforce development efforts to assist those disproportionally impacted by the pandemic that might take longer to recover.”
About 36% of unemployed workers living in the city have been seeking work for longer than 27 weeks and are considered long-term unemployed. While the gap in the long-term unemployed share of job seekers between the city and the nation was largest one year after the onset of the pandemic in March 2021 (69% in the city versus 43% in the nation), it is still sizeable two years later (36% in the city versus 24% in the nation). Over the course of the pandemic, many people also left the workforce. DiNapoli’s report found that some demographic groups rebounded to pre-pandemic levels of labor force participation by 2021, while other groups have not yet fully returned.
Major findings of DiNapoli’s report: Read more »