NYC Bracing for Economic Hit; 500K Jobs Could be Lost to Pandemic

By: Jerry Cashowitz

New York City could be looking at shedding as many as 500,000 jobs due to the pandemic — and many in Gotham are bracing for the impact.

The Big Apple has, of course, been hit harder than any other major metropolis in the United States. In fact, though numbers are growing quickly, it has been reported that New York City has 15,168 confirmed cases, up 4,812 since Saturday, and New Jersey has nearly 2,000 confirmed cases.

“With many more confirmed Covid-19 cases than anywhere else in the country, business activity all but grinding to a halt and all nonessential workers ordered to stay home, New York’s economy is bracing for a body blow of the magnitude no one has seen before,” reported Crain’s New York Business.

“In a normal downturn, economic activity contracts. But now economic activity is stopping,” Ronnie Lowenstein, director of the city’s Independent Budget Office, told Crain’s. “It’s a whole new world. A whole swath of people are being asked to sacrifice their jobs in the interest of public health.”

Current estimates indicated that up to a tenth of the city’s workforce, roughly half a million people, could soon find themselves without jobs.

Statistics put out by the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs show that 130,000 restaurant workers already find themselves without work.

Disappearing salaries among foodservice workers in New York City may well total $300 to $400 million in one month, Parrott said. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like that,” Parrott said. “The coronavirus crisis triggered the onset of a national recession whose trajectory is unknowable at this point.”

Restaurants across New York City “have already reported decreases in business so severe that they’ve had to let workers go, Patch.com said. “Emmanuel Kavalos, general manager of Kefi on the Upper West Side, has already been forced to lay off half of his staff. “That’s one of the more devastating things because they did nothing wrong.” Kavalos said. “It’s just the present situation.”

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo offered words of inspiration on Sunday, noting: “They talk about the greatest generation, the generation that survived World War II. Dealing with hardship actually makes you stronger. Life on the individual level, on the collective level, on the social level. Life is not about avoiding challenges. Challenges are going to come your way. Life is going to knock you on your rear end at one point. Something will happen. And then life becomes about overcoming those challenges. That’s what life is about. And that’s what this country is about.”

America is America, he continued, “because we overcome adversity and challenges. That’s how we were born. That’s what we’ve done all our life. We overcome challenges and this is a period of challenge for this generation. And that’s what has always made America great and that’s what going to make this generation great. I believe that to the bottom of my soul. We will overcome this and America will be the greater for it. And my hope is that New York is going to lead the way forward and together we will.”