Reports

New York has recovered less than half the jobs lost between February and April 2020. This report explores the industries leading the recovery, including the leisure and hospitality sector, retail, and construction, and shows which industries continue to lose jobs.

One year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 4 out of 5 small businesses continue to report an overall negative impact in their business. This report explores the latest U.S. Census Bureau survey data from New York’s small businesses, the allocation of fiscal relief for New York from the American Rescue Plan of 2021, and the latest figures from the Comptroller’s monthly cash report.

A year after the first case of COVID-19 was reported in New York State, the economic disruption caused by the pandemic remains severe. One key measure is the total number of New Yorkers claiming unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. The figure remains elevated 11 months after the initial surge of job losses, with 2.4 million claims reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as of mid-February 2021.

The Executive Budget Financial Plan for State Fiscal Year 2021-22 projects that federal operating aid spending in the current fiscal year will total $76.6 billion, an increase of 30 percent over last year. The proposed Budget assumes the State will receive at least $3 billion in unrestricted federal assistance for each of the next two fiscal years. However, that level of funding would not be enough to avert painful spending cuts to local governments, nonprofits and other service providers, or tax increases.

Each year, thousands of New Yorkers take the opportunity, while paying their State taxes, to support a variety of charitable purposes through the State’s personal income tax check-off programs.

New York ranks seventh among all the states in the percentage of adults who are experiencing food scarcity, at 14 percent compared to the 11 percent national rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest Household Pulse Survey.

Unemployment rates for New York State, New York City and the balance of the State spiked upward in April 2020. At that point, and in the months immediately before, the percentages of officially unemployed workers in the City and in the rest of the State were nearly identical — but those numbers have since diverged sharply.

As DEC now enters its second half-century, its mission is broader than ever before. Wide-ranging laws to address climate change and major initiatives to assure clean drinking water are just some of the new tasks DEC has been assigned in the last few years, adding to an already long list of environmental planning, regulatory and management programs — all of which are important to our quality of life and the State’s economy.

The economic outlook contained in the Governor’s Executive Budget proposal for State Fiscal Year 2021-22, released this week, anticipates continuing but slow improvement for employment and other economic indicators, as well as tax revenues.

DiNapoli's office issues a state cash report every month identifying actual state revenues and spending from the prior month. The cash report focuses primarily on the General Fund and All Governmental Funds. The General Fund is the major operating fund of the state. All Governmental Funds includes General, Special Revenue, Debt Service and Capital Projects funds, as well as funds from the federal government.

Previous Monthly Cash Basis Reports

New Yorkers’ average student loan balance rose by 3.9 percent from the previous year to $37,600 as of June 2020, according to newly available data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The Office of the State Comptroller received 21,282 contract transactions, including both new contracts and contract amendments, valued at $102.4 billion in the calendar year 2019. The average time from agency contract submission to final sign-off was 6.3 days.

In the second quarter of 2020, total wages paid in New York State declined by $12.5 billion or 7.4 percent in comparison to the second quarter of 2019, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

After losing more than 1.9 million jobs in March and April, New York State saw steady gains, averaging over 174,000 jobs in each of the following five months. 

In Federal Fiscal Year 2019, New York State generated $23.7 billion more in federal taxes than it received in federal spending. In total dollars, New York’s deficit was the highest among the 50 states. For every tax dollar paid to Washington, our State received 91 cents in return—well below the national average of $1.24.

Excel file with supporting data | Data Visualization

Total employment in New York State fell in March, and again—much more sharply—in April, with a combined loss of more than 1.9 million jobs.

The Office of the State Comptroller estimates that the State’s tax revenues will decline by 5.6 percent or $4.7 billion in SFY 2020-21 compared to the previous year. Such revenues are projected to grow by 1.6 percent in SFY 2021-22, and to increase by 4.3 percent in SFY 2022- 23

Many New Yorkers enjoy buying Lottery tickets and taking a chance on a big prize. Some play the slot machines and other games in the State’s eight Video Lottery Terminal (VLT) facilities, four commercial casinos and seven Native American casinos. Sports wagering and interactive fantasy sports are now part of the gambling picture, and traditional betting on horses continues at racetracks and off-track betting locations.

Statewide local sales tax collections in the third quarter of 2020 declined by 9.5 percent, or $452 million, over the same quarter in 2019. This decrease, while alarming in a typical year, was still a marked improvement from the 27.1 percent drop in the second quarter, which reflected the peak of the economic impact to date from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regional Table [.xlsx]

New York State’s unemployment rate dropped to 9.7 percent in September, marking the first time the rate has been below 10 percent since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.