800,000 New Yorkers Lose Their Federal Unemployment Benefit

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, New York City, unlike other major American cities, has been beaten economically, as sustained recovery has not taken root and hundreds of thousands of workers have yet to find full-time jobs.

On Sunday, the city, like other communities around the country, took another hit: the pandemic-related federal unemployment benefits package that sustained families for 17 months. expired.

In short, about $463 million a week of unemployment benefits for New York City residents is coming to an end, which threatens to reverse the city’s burgeoning economic recovery and cut off the sole source of income for some to pay rent and buy food in a city riddled with inequality.

About 10 percent of the city’s population, or about 800,000 people, will get federal aid waived, but many will continue to receive state aid.

Benefits were the only income for many self-employed workers and contract workers (taxi drivers, artists and hairdressers, among others) whose jobs were central to the city’s economy and vitality, and who were not eligible for regular unemployment benefits.

“Just hacking people is ridiculous, unethical, and bad,” said Travis Curry, 34, a freelance photographer, who will lose all his help, which is about $482 a week. “If we can’t buy groceries or go to local businesses because we don’t have the money to live in New York, how is New York going to bounce back?”

Federal officials say more Americans are ready to return to work, and Republican lawmakers and small business owners have blamed the benefits for deterring people from working at a time of record numbers of job opportunities.

In recent weeks, President Biden has seen states like New York high unemployment rates may now turn to federal pandemic aid to expand benefits after administration Decided not to ask Congress to authorize an extension.

Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat in New York City, signed a new moratorium on evictions after evictions. Supreme Court ends federal protectionsHe said the state cannot afford to expand benefits on its own and the federal government must provide additional money. A spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio did not respond to requests for comment.

The expiration of unemployment benefits has ended the period of extraordinary federal intervention to support the economy over the past year and a half, as the virus ravaged the country, causing 649,000 deaths and millions of laid-off workers struggling to secure new ones. Occupations.

Federal programs supported standard and much more modest state unemployment benefits. New York City became the first major city in the United States to be hit hardest by the pandemic, almost overnight destroying industries that support the city’s economy, from tourism to hospitality to office buildings. Economists predict that New York City may not fully recover all of its pandemic job losses by 2024.

Federal aid provided new streams of financial aid beyond the regular unemployment benefits distributed by the states. Unemployed Americans received a weekly supplement of $600, which was later reduced to $300 a week under Mr. Biden. Unemployment benefits were also given to contract workers and self-employed people who were not entitled to benefits under normal circumstances. Payments have been extended beyond the 26 weeks offered by most states.

The expiration of the $300 federal supplement means those who still qualify for regular benefits through the State of New York will lose about half of their weekly benefits.

Since unemployment programs launched in April 2020, New York City residents have collected approximately $53.5 billion in unemployment benefits, particularly among low-paid workers in the service, hospitality, and arts industries. according to a recent report By economist James Parrott of the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs. Recipients also tended to be people of color who bore the brunt of the economic and health burden of the pandemic.

This includes Ericka Tircio, who lost her job and also fell ill while cleaning a 40-story office building in Manhattan’s Financial District in March 2020. He’s raised funds since then, but will drop by about $300 a week.

Ms Tircio, an immigrant from Ecuador with a 6-year-old son, said her company had recently told her that she could be asked to return to work in the coming months.

“I pray to God they call me back,” said Tircio, who speaks Spanish, through a translator. “There are moments when I wait so long that I feel depressed.”

Ms Tircio is a member of 32BJ SEIU, a local chapter of the International Union of Service Workers, and its president, Kyle Bragg, said thousands of its members have been laid off during the pandemic.

“Workers should not be left behind to fend for themselves during the worst crisis of the century,” said Mr Bragg.

In recent months, nearly half of states have chosen to end their epidemic relief aid long before it ends this weekend, a deadline set by the federal government this weekend, with a strong recovery on the horizon.

In states run by Republican governors, elected officials said the aid was hampering economic growth and causing labor shortages; however, job growth in these states did not differ significantly more than states that hold programs.

In New York, business leaders have advocated for the state to end pandemic unemployment benefits, arguing that they are hurting small businesses. struggle to hire workers. Thomas Grech, president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, said there was insufficient attendance at several job fairs it hosted over the summer.

“People have been discouraged from going to work,” said Mr Grech. “They make more money by staying at home. It’s a classic situation where goodwill goes bad.”

Mr Grech said that raising wages as a way to attract workers is unrealistic for some restaurants “unless you want to spend $30 or $40 on a burger,” as some labor economists and advocates suggest.

Elected officials in New York argued that unemployment benefits helped pump money directly into the economy.

“People on emergency unemployment benefits will come back and spend this money, and this money will help other people struggling to get things back to normal,” said Brian Kavanagh, a Democratic State Senator who represents Lower Manhattan.

The end of benefits was supposed to coincide with some sort of grand reopening for New York, as many companies announced that workers would be recalled to the office in September, during the early summer decline in virus cases.

But the Delta variant has fueled a resurgence of the virus, putting off hopes that Manhattan’s office buildings will soon be repopulated. Months of moderate job gains stalled over the summer, and the city’s unemployment rate rose slightly in July, at 10.2 percent, almost double the national average.

Bill Wilkins, who oversees the economic development of the East New York City Local Development Authority in Brooklyn, said unemployment and other benefits have helped keep his neighborhood, which has long suffered from high unemployment. But as it moves away from the peak of the pandemic, he also said “individuals have to be more confident”.

The pandemic has exposed the significant skills gap in New York City, resulting in large numbers of unemployed workers who do not qualify for job openings that require a college degree, such as high-paying jobs in the tech sector, he said.

“If you want a job right now, you have a job,” Mr. Wilkins said, referring to lower-paying openings at many mom and dad shops. “The question is, is this job a sustainable wage? You want higher paying jobs, but you must have the necessary skills that require that kind of salary.”

Alex Weisman, an actor, signed up for unemployment benefits for the first time he worked together for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” after the pandemic shut down Broadway. Checks ranging from about $800 to $1,100 per week allowed her to continue paying rent for her apartment in Manhattan’s Hamilton Heights neighborhood.

Mr. Weisman, 34, sends audition videos every week in hopes of stable employment. Earlier this year, she booked a television job for five weeks, which allowed her to take a short break from unemployment benefits.

When her benefits run out, she considers contacting a temp agency to find work. Apart from acting, she last found a job as a barista in 2013.

“I’ll have to take an entry-level position somewhere,” said Mr. Weisman. “I have absolutely nothing to offer any other industry as I have trained and been successful in what I want to do. Scary.”

Mohammad Kashem, who has worked as a taxi driver for nearly two decades, had similar difficulties in switching industries. Prior to the pandemic, a bank had confiscated the taxi coin as it struggled to repay its loans amid a sharp decline in the number of yellow taxi drivers.

Mr. Kashem, a Bangladeshi immigrant living in Brooklyn, worked as a mail carrier during the pandemic but quit a month later, saying he wasn’t used to delivering mail in the rain and snow.

His family counts on $700 a week in unemployment benefits. Stating that he and his wife could not continue their work during the pandemic due to health problems, he noted that they both caught the coronavirus, had high blood pressure and diabetes.

When unemployment benefits expire, the wife can try to find a job as a babysitter. Mr. Kashem, 50, is worried about how he will pay the rent and school supplies for his three children.

“I’ve been a taxi driver for years,” said Mr Kashem. “I’m not used to any other job.”