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Out of work in New York

If the sea of about 84,000 spectators at Invesco Field at Mile High seemed like a lot to you last night, imagine how many arenas we could fill with a much less cheery crowd here in New York. About half a million workers across the state were stuck on the unemployment rolls as of July, according to a new report by the Fiscal Policy Institute.

Calling the joblessness problem “the other crisis in Albany,” the labor-friendly think tank reported yesterday:

The New York State unemployment rate was 5.2 percent in July, up from a low-point of 4.3 percent in 2006. Higher still is the rate of underemployment (8.1 percent in 2007, the latest data available), which includes people who are so discouraged that they have stopped looking for work, and workers who would like to work full time but can only find a part-time job.

The FPI analysis also found that New York workers' median hourly wage has been relatively stagnant since 2003, and dipped over the past year. Modest job growth did occur between 2003 and 2007, according to the report, but was “largely driven by debt and an unprecedented housing market bubble.”

Though Long Island is known as one of the state’s bastions of affluence, it ranked high among counties in terms of rising unemployment. From the first half of 2007 to the first half of 2008, average unemployment in Suffolk grew from about 29,900 to 36,700 (a 22.6 percent jump), and in Nassau from roughly 24,900 to 30,200 (21 percent). New York's overall average unemployment grew by around 13 percent; job losses have clustered in the finance, construction and retail sectors.

The trends signal a troubling change, but not a hopeless one, the institute says. The report urges Albany lawmakers to respond by reforming the state's unemployment insurance system (which currently doles out about $300 per week on average), to help families ride out the economic slump while softening the impact of eroding wages.

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Posted by Michelle Chen on August 29, 2008 2:34 PM | | Comments (6)

Comments (6)

Posted by terry Stavropoulos | August 30, 2008 08:00

The job losses are going to get deeper and broader. Look no further then NY's tag line of being "The Financial Capital of the World". While GDP has not gone to official recessionary levels, a depression exists in the financial service sector. This will affect every facet and sector in NY. Look no further then the state and city coffers as well as Gov. Patersons "crisis speech".

 

Posted by EdD | August 31, 2008 13:38

Do you think there is a connection between unemployment and illegal immigration? What about the stagnation of wages and illegal immigration.

 

Posted by EdD | August 31, 2008 13:42

Might there be a connection between illegal immigration and unemployment and stagnation of wages?

 

Posted by Jenny | September 2, 2008 12:44

Yes, there is a connection between illegal aliens, the exploitation of our visa programs, and unemployment and the dragging down of our wage standards (it's way past "stagnation" now).

Read the reports from the studies (and even the books written by) conducted by world respected economist, Dr. George Borjas of the Kennedy School of Government at http://borjas.typepad.com/

There are blog articles, but also articles in the right hand column of the site. Dr. Borjas has proven that the refusal of the government to enforce our immigration laws (it's not broken, just not enforced), corporate and business interests not being punished for hiring illegals, and the exploitation of visas, massive amonts of American citizens (and they are black, brown as well as white) are long term un/unemployed, and it's dramatically gutted wages. It's lead to the homelessness and privation of our own citizens, and the erosion of the dollar and the cratering of our economy.

 

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