It's hardly a comfort that NY state unemployment is driven by NYC's,
since about half of NYSers live in NYC.
One reason NYC unemployment is so high is because of the profoundly
distorted industrial structure - i.e., heavy overrepresentation of FIRE
(finance, insurance, real estate) and elite business services
(advertising, media, lawyering, and other hot-air industries). For
decades, NYC governments, led by liberal Democrats, have quite consciously
driven manufacturing out of town - unsightly, lowers property values, less
rent per sq ft. Governors, from Rockefeller (creator of the job-killing
Urban Development Corporation) to Cuomo (who has used the UDC to clear out
industrial neighborhoods like Long Island City to make way for politically
connected financiers and developers, like the Citicorp tower and Lazard
Realty's - Lazard being Felix Rohatyn's firm - disastrous Thompson Place
project). This makes for dismal employment prospects for the masses. And
since about a quarter of the personal income earned in NYC is hauled out
by suburbanites, we have a very low level of retail sales here, which
depresses retail employment below national averages.
Worse, the real estate/Wall Street elite consciously and deliberately
drove the port of New York over to New Jersey, to free up the West Side of
Manahattan for real estate development. This massively increased the cost
of doing business for small manufacturers - and also greatly increased
truck traffic across the Geo Washington Bridge, fouling the air, and
wrecking the pavement. Everything that comes into NYC has to come by
truck (and into Long Island as well), since we have no freight rail or
waterway connection to the mainland.
The NYC unemployment rate only begins to tell the story. Our labor force
participation rate is about 10 points below the national average (or was,
last time I checked). If you're not in the LF, of course, you're not
unemployed.
Doug
Doug Henwood [[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Left Business Observer
212-874-4020 (voice)
212-874-3137 (fax)
On Mon, 15 Aug 1994, Eban Goodstein wrote:
>
>
> **************
> Eban Goodstein Department of Economics
> 518-584-5000 (2739) 811 N. Broadway
> fax: 518-584-3023 Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ************************
>
> In response to right wing claims about the disastrous state of the
> New York economy, I've been doing a little digging and have come up
> with the following picture: Over the last four years the state has
> risen from fifth to first in the overall unemployment rankings. But
> this trend is driven wholly by the grim employment picture in New
> York City. Indeed, outside of the five boroughs of New York City,
> the unemployment rate in the state is well below the regional
> average. Thus, for most of the state, job growth issues are clearly
> reflective of regional trends.
>
> Here's the data:
>
> 1993 1993 1992 1992 1991 1991 1990 1990
> RATE RANK RATE RANK RATE RANK RATE RANK
>
> New York 7.7 1 8.5 2 7.2 3 5.2 5
> NYC 10.2 10.8 8.6 6.8
> Excluding NYC 5.6 5.9 6.0 3.9
> Connecticut 6.2 6 7.5 4 6.7 5 5.1 6
> Massachusetts 6.9 4 8.5 2 9.0 1 6.0 2
> New Jersey 7.4 2 8.4 3 6.6 6 5.0 7
> Ohio 6.5 5 7.2 5 6.4 7 5.7 3
> Pennsylvania 7.0 3 7.5 4 6.9 4 5.4 4
> Rhode Island 7.7 1 8.9 1 8.5 2 6.7 1
> Vermont 5.4 7 6.6 6 6.4 8 5.0 8
>
> Table 1-- State Unemployment Rates, 1990-1993
>
> SOURCE: Employment and Earnings, May Issue (US Dept. of Labor:
> Washington, DC)
>
>
> Does anyone have any ideas of why unemployment is so high in NYC
> right now? The other big Northeast cities: Boston, Philly,
> Pittsburg, Cleveland, all have unemployment rates at or below their
> state average.
>
> Thanks....
>
> Eban
>
