Finance

One pandemic, two recoveries: New Yorkers are three times more likely to be jobless than Nebraskans

One pandemic, two recoveries: New Yorkers are three times more likely to be jobless than Nebraskans

It will take us a long time to get out of this economic mess, but we are moving forward: since the end of April.

But that national recovery is uneven. Employment in some states has returned to pre-pandemic levels, while others are at massive levels of unemployment that surpassed the Great Recession of 2007-09.

When the pandemic hit, the unemployment rate in Nebraska soared from 4% in March to 8.7% in April. But the state’s almost completely reopened economy has helped bring the unemployment rate back to 4% since August.

The outlook in New York, the epicenter of the pandemic in the spring, is much less rosy. Its unemployment rate rose from 4.1% in March to a staggering 15.3% in April. Since then, it has improved to 12.5% ​​in August, a figure that is still above the peak of the 8.9% unemployment rate in the United States during the Great Recession era.

How can a New Yorker be three times more likely to be unemployed than a Nebraska?

States like Nebraska, which are more rural and have not been as affected by the pandemic, have almost completely reopened.

Northeastern states like New Jersey, New York and Connecticut were hit hard by the virus in the spring and are reopening their businesses at a much slower rate. One example: the indoor dining room in New York City doesn’t start until September 30, and that’s only at 25% full. That cautious approach explains why New York’s unemployment rate remains so high.

While New York leads the nation with 33,092 lives lost to the pandemic, its number of cases and deaths is plummeting, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Only 0.9% of COVID-19 tests in New York are positive compared to more than 50% at one point in April. Nebraska has far fewer COVID-19 deaths (452), yet its positive rate is 12.6%, which is above the 10% threshold that adds inbound travelers to New York’s 14-day quarantine. . . . .

And unemployment in New York is also elevated by its high concentration of entertainment and hospitality. That sector was crushed by the pandemic and has yet to recover. And that’s also the reason why unemployment remains so high in heavy tourism in California (11.4%), Hawaii (12.5%) and Nevada (13.2%).

While Florida also has a massive tourism industry, its unemployment rate is only 7.4% in August, which can be attributed to a more aggressive reopening plan than states like Nevada or New York.

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