Public Employee Press

New York's jobs crisis

Officially, the Great Recession of 2008-2009 is over. But too many New Yorkers are still suffering amid its economic wreckage.

Two years into the so-called recovery, one in seven New Yorkers is unemployed or under-employed or has lost hope of finding a job, according to the "State of Working New York," which the Albany-based Fiscal Policy Institute publishes each year.

"The deficit that matters most for New Yorkers is the jobs deficit," said James Parrott, FPI's deputy director and chief economist. It would take over a half million jobs to return the state to its 4.3 percent pre-recession unemployment rate.

This recovery is the weakest on record since World War II. Unemployment for black workers was almost 14 percent for the first six months of 2011, but the state's safety net lay in shreds. In the last decade, New York's unemployment insurance benefit has fallen behind nearly every other state. Its average weekly benefit of $305 replaces less than one-fourth of the average weekly wage, lower than 47 other states.

Renewing the state tax on high-income individuals and families - which Gov. Andrew Cuomo refuses to do - would significantly ease the fiscal burden on state and local governments, reducing the need to lay off public employees, says the report. FPI also calls for an increase in the state's $7.25-an-hour minimum wage to boost workers' purchasing power, which has fallen by 26 percent since 1970.