NY . – New York City’s unemployment rate dropped slightly in December to 11.4% from 12.1% the previous month. It is still stubbornly higher than that of the state, which was 8.2% (0.2 percentage points less than in November) and that of the country, which was 6.7%).
And all this while last month jobs were destroyed.
New York businesses struggle amid pandemic
The State lost 37,200 jobs from them, 22,100 from private companies. It is the corrosive stamp of the COVID pandemic on the job market.
The percentages improve because, as happens throughout the country, they only represent a part of reality. There are many more people who have given up the idea of having a job and do not count as unemployed.
With 157,600 fewer jobs, the education and health services sector has closed. The second most affected by the crisis, followed by commerce, transport and home services such as water or gas.
The sector most affected in the year is the hotel, bar and restaurant industry, which has seen almost 39% of all jobs evaporate in the year that just closed. Some 366,600 people no longer wait tables, prepare food or drinks, receive travelers in hotels or provide services in concert areas in the state. Many of the places where this happens have closed.
It is the industry that has lost the most jobs by far in the state. The restrictions on internal service in the city and the cold are once again being a setback for an industry that also depends a lot on internal consumption that has been withdrawn for months due to the crisis and the lack of tourism.
In NYC alone, bars and restaurants have lost 140,700 jobs, 43% of the total for the year. These are figures recalled by Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, who described the crisis as “something that has never been experienced before.” Only between November and December 11,700 jobs have been lost in the sector “which can be attributed to more permanent restaurant closures, the closure of service within the premises for the second time and fewer customers on the street due to winter temperatures,” says Rigie .
From this organization, Washington is once again called upon to approve the Restaurant Acts, which involves the granting of grants, or money that does not have to be returned, to keep businesses open. In the last fiscal stimulus this specific aid was not contemplated but better conditions were given to the owners of premises to qualify for PPP loans that are partially forgivable.
FIGURES
578,000 are the jobs that have been lost in New York City compared to December 2019. A drop of 12.2%
-5.8% is the percentage of drop in construction jobs in New York State
5.9% is the unemployment rate in New York State after the city is excluded, in 2019 it was 4.1%.
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