We asked workers what they need to recover. Here's what they said
Headlines proclaiming the return to normal life are all around us, but for New York's most vulnerable workers, the pandemic's economic and social effects remain significant challenges. These workers need more than boosterism. They need a real commitment from city, state, and federal leaders to provide the funding that will get them back to work at their old jobs or retrained for the changed economy.
Our City-Council-funded initiatives Jobs to Build On, Worker Service Centers, and Immigration Protection Group have made an impact for years in communities facing high rates of unemployment by resourcing the community organizations workers know and trust. These organizations got their neighbors through the pandemic and they will be the ones to lead them out of the pandemic too.
Survey Shows COVID Recession Persists for Vulnerable New Yorkers
The first-of-its-kind survey focused on COVID impacts facing workers at the neighborhood-level
A new first-of-its-kind survey of New York workers at the neighborhood-level finds that many are still suffering from unemployment, anxiety, and other pandemic impacts, even as vaccination rates increase and restrictions lift. The report, commissioned by the Consortium for Worker Education for the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, surveyed over 700 workers in Astoria, Queens and shows the depth and breadth of challenges facing the city as it emerges from the pandemic. The report can be accessed here.
In focusing the survey on one neighborhood, and partnering with trusted community-based organizations on outreach, researchers were able to include vulnerable New Yorkers who are often missed in city-wide surveys. Astoria was chosen as a representative, middle-income neighborhood with a diverse population.
“By bringing together economic findings with insight into mental health needs, new care responsibilities, and uncertainty about the employment landscape, this survey gives a uniquely multi-dimensional picture of the challenges workers face as New York emerges from the pandemic,” report author L.K. Moe, Assistant Director for Economic Policy of the Covid-19 Economic Recovery Project at the Center for New York City Affairs said. “Only by addressing these linked economic and social needs will the city be able to reopen and rebuild in a way that will allow all New Yorkers to recover.”
“It is clear that the free market and existing government programs are not enough for workers to recover from this unprecedented economic calamity,” said George Miranda, Chairman of the Board of the Consortium for Worker Education. “Elected leaders at the city, state, and federal level must ensure that small businesses have the funds to rehire their workforce and that workers have access to training and support to re-enter an economy that has changed from when they were laid off last year.”
Black and Latinx workers faced the highest levels of job loss during the pandemic, but a majority of all races suffered unemployment or lower income.
Workers of color have been hit hardest by unemployment. Black workers reported the highest rates of dislocation (39 percent), followed by Latinx workers (34 percent), White (25 percent), and Asian and other races and ethnicities (18 percent).
A third of those Astoria workers surveyed were laid off during the pandemic and only 38 percent have returned to work either fulltime or parttime. Two-thirds of all respondents lost income, and three-quarters of workers from households making $50,000 or less annually saw negative economic impacts.
The survey finds that New York workers are uncertain about their employment future. Only 42 percent of dislocated Astoria workers think that they will be able to return to the same employer post-pandemic, while 20 percent think they will have to change occupations. The survey includes respondents from 20 different industries.
Impacted workers: Loss of job, pay, or hours since onset of Covid-19 by employment industry of respondent
“This close look at pandemic impacts in Astoria reinforces what we suspect is happening at a citywide level—hundreds of thousands of workers will not return to their previous jobs and the City needs to mount an unprecedented response,” stated James Parrott, Director of Economic and Fiscal Policies at the Center for New York City Affairs, and author of several studies on the Covid-19 economic impact in New York City. Parrott continued, “Unless the City starts mobilizing a massive worker redeployment effort very soon, Black and Brown city residents will be consigned to double-digit unemployment rates for the next several years.”
“We were able to draw on the Consortium for Worker Education’s network of community organizations and unions to reach a representative cross section of Astoria workers,” said Joe McDermott, Executive Director of the Consortium for Worker Education. “These are the institutions that got vulnerable New Yorkers through the pandemic and they are the institutions that are going to ensure these workers succeed after the pandemic. We have to make sure they have the resources to serve their communities.”
Working New Yorkers are facing a myriad of challenges, they report in the survey, including high rates of anxiety, lack of sufficient internet access for remote education, and hunger.
The report’s findings make clear that economic and social recovery will not reach the city’s most vulnerable workers without government intervention. The Center for New York City Affairs (CNYCA) and the Consortium for Worker Education recommend that the City create a massive wage subsidy program to allow small businesses to rehire employees, as well as increasing investment in workforce development programs to support workers who must learn new skills to seek employment in the post-COVID economy.