NY City Jobs Recover to Nearly Pre-Covid Levels, with close to 4.7 million now working here
| 13 Mar 2023 | 02:12
After a blip at the end of 2022, the latest jobs report shows NYC is back to 96 percent of its pre-COVID employment numbers. Chart: Suhail Bhat, Data: New York State Dept. of Labor
NYC restaurants are one of the sectors gaining back numbers of workers, according to the latest revised employment figures from the NYS Dept of Labor. Photo: Ben Fractenberg, THE CITY
New York City has not regained all the jobs lost in the pandemic, but new numbers released Thursday show that the city gained far more jobs last year than believed and is within striking distance of a complete recovery from the pandemic shutdown.
Employment increased by 235,200 in 2022, to nearly 4,679,000, according to revised data from the state Labor Department—about 40,000 more jobs than preliminary data for 2022 had indicated. With a January uptick of 32,000, New York has regained 96 percent of the lost jobs, 8 percentage points more than previously counted.
The department originally reported monthly employment based on a survey of 180,000 employers statewide, about half of which are in the city. Every March it then revises the numbers using more extensive unemployment insurance tax data.
The most significant revisions came in leisure and hospitality — including restaurants and bars, catering halls and food markets — and health care.
“This is a really great jobs report,” said Rahul Jain, the state deputy comptroller who concentrates on New York City issues. “Strength in revisions in the leisure and hospitality sector isn’t unexpected given we were bringing up the rear nationally, but the health care sector revisions and continued growth in recent months are really strong and aligned with regional job openings.”
The nation as a whole has regained all the jobs lost in the shutdown and added about a million more. The new numbers suggest the official forecasts from the mayor, comptroller and Independent Budget Office that the city will not completely recover until late 2024 are too pessimistic.
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