Visitors to the Department of Labor are turned away at the door by personnel due to closures over coronavirus concerns, Wednesday, March 18, 2020, in New York. Applications for jobless benefits are surging in some states as coronavirus concerns shake the U.S. economy. The sharp increase comes as governments have ordered millions of workers, students and shoppers to stay home as a precaution against spreading the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Virus Outbreak Unemployment
NEW YORK (77WABC) — New York State is lagging behind other states with 454,000 fewer private sector jobs than before the viral pandemic. An analysis of federal labor statistics also find the state has the worst employment deficit in the nation at 4.1 percent.
According to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics as of February 21, states have surpassed their pre-pandemic employment levels — with the exception of New York.
Federal jobs data analyst E.J. McMahon with the Empire Center for Public Policy said the us as a whole recovered 19.6 million of the 21 million jobs lost in the spring of 2020. That puts the U.S. within 1.1 percent of recovering all jobs lost during the pandemic.
However, New York state lags behind at 4.1 percent below its pre-pandemic employment level.
“On a percentage basis, only Hawaii and Alaska were worse off,” McMahon said. “It will take more than federally subsidized government spending to ignite the economic growth New York needs.”
