Study: 1 in 7 NY'ers underemployed or jobless

[marmar]

The Fiscal Policy Institute has released a report that says that two years into the “recovery” from the Great Recession of 2008-2009, 1.4 million, or one in every seven, New York workers is unemployed, under-employed or has given up looking for work.

The annual report, “State of Working New York,” indicates a modest decline in the state’s unemployment rate over the past year, but shows that this decline is deceiving since it results solely from discouraged workers dropping out of the labor force. Adding back those workers would make the state’s July 2011 unemployment rate 9.6 percent, more than one-and-a-half percent higher than the official 8 percent unemployment rate for that month and higher than in late 2009, considered the recession “bottom” in the job market.

“The deficit that matters most for New Yorkers is the jobs deficit. New York would need 512,000 additional jobs today to return the unemployment rate to the 4.3 percent level that prevailed prior to the recession,” said a statement from James Parrott, FPI Chief Economist and Deputy Director.

The report notes that $12.7 billion in unemployment insurance benefits have been paid in New York state since the start of the national recession. However, the state’s unemployment insurance program has not been updated in over a decade and has fallen behind nearly every other state in the extent to which it replaces lost wages. New York’s average weekly benefit of $305 replaces less than 27 percent of the average weekly wage, putting New York 48th compared to other states. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/blog/morning_roundup/2011/09/study-1-in-7-nyers-underemployed-or.html