Nearly one in four black New Yorkers lost their jobs due to the economic decline caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report released Monday by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
The Popular Annual Financial Report document details the economic status of the city during the fiscal year, but the report for 2020, which was developed between July 2019 and June 2020, paid special attention to the financial response of the City Government during the pandemic.
The March shutdown brought the Big Apple’s economy to pieces, causing hundreds of thousands of jobs to be lost in just weeks. Stringer’s report indicates that the city’s unemployment rate, which had hit a record low of 3.4% in February, spiked to 20.3% in June.
But the job loss hit the service sector the hardest, especially low-wage black workers, Stringer said.
While the unemployment rate for white New Yorkers jumped from 2% in February to 14% in June, the unemployment rate for black, Hispanic and Asian workers skyrocketed even more dramatically.
Unemployment within the Asian community jumped from 3% in February to 26% in May; among Hispanics, it rose fivefold from 5% in February to 25%; and unemployment rates among the black community soared from 4.6% in February to 24.3% in June.
In total, the city’s economy lost nearly 900,000 private sector jobs between February and April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which Stringer described as an unprecedented job loss.
Not surprisingly, the service sector, which encompasses restaurants, bars, hotels, retail and entertainment venues, has been hit the hardest, given that businesses were closed for months due to restrictions. Stringer reported that jobs in this sector were reduced in June by 41% from the figure recorded in February.
On the contrary, unemployment in financial services, information, science and technology, suffered was barely 7%.
Meanwhile, Stringer reported that the city invested more than $ 2.6 billion in fiscal 2020 to tackle the crisis. The majority of that funding (22.8%, more than $ 597 million) went to the Administrative Services Department for the purchase of personal protective equipment, respirators, and COVID-19 test kits.
While tax revenue for the city during fiscal 2020 was $ 95.8 billion, the Big Apple spent $ 99.9 billion to deal with the crisis, leaving a large fiscal gap.
Open here to read the full report.
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