New York State and City employment finally break past pre-pandemic levels

The New York State Department of Labor reported on March 7^th, 2024 that employment in New York grew by over 59,000 from December 2023 to January 2024. Private sector employment grew by 47,000. The healthy improvement also prompted Governor Hochul to announce that “ New York is back, “ since private sector employment in the State has finally broken past its pre-COVID pandemic level of February 2020. New York hasn’t quite reached its pre-pandemic total employment level, which includes both the private sector and employment in Federal, state, and local government.

I wrote about New York City surpassing the pre-pandemic private sector job count in early November, quoting Mayor Adams’ pronouncement. In fact, the January announcement also reached a New York City milestone. Total employment, including private sector and government, finally surpassed February 2020, according to the New York City Office of Management and Budget monthly analysis of City employment levels. Here are the City’s numbers, showing the three months in 2020 from February to April, with the February employment level bolded, and the January 2024 level, also bolded, taken from NYC OMB:

2020M02	4702.474	4107.982
2020M03	4639.524	4044.761
2020M04	3746.113	3161.784
2024M01	4730.066	4148.098

The City’s private sector level is more than 40,000 jobs past the February 2020 level this January.

The Empire Center for Public Policy pointed out that the entire recovery touted by the Governor is concentrated downstate, in New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley. Total employment downstate is up 51,000 jobs in January 2024 compared to January 2020, while upstate private employment is still down 49,000 jobs compared to January 2020. The story of a healthy downstate economy in New York and a weak economy upstate is a long one, of course.

Governor Hochul nonetheless is making major efforts to stimulate multibillion dollar chip manufacturing and research in Onondaga, Saratoga, and Albany counties in upstate New York.