Prometheus 6

Here comes those economic issues I'm concerned about. And I'm concerned because Black men in New York City have an incredibly high unemployment rate.

Many of you may be familiar with the work of Devah Pager, whose work focuses on this very area.

The Mark of Race. Among the findings from Pager’s field experiment, one of the most troubling relates to the impact of race on employment outcomes. Employers for entry-level jobs were just as willing—if not more—to consider a white applicant with a felony conviction than a black applicant with no criminal history. This result clearly illustrates to the continuing significance of race in shaping opportunities. Though politicians and the general public are increasingly likely to believe that direct discrimination is a thing of the past, these results suggest that such a conclusion is premature. Pager is currently conducting a replication and expansion of her first project (with Bruce Western) in a study that examines discrimination by race, ethnicity, criminal background, and educational attainment.

Race at Work: Realities of Race and Criminal Record in the New York City Job Market is a good popularization of her work. Shockingly, racism (conscious or not) and poor education (which is a national problem) are the major causes of a 50% Black unemployment rate in New York City.

This means, to me, that the first areas of the city to lose services etc. will be those who can't afford to provide it for themselves.

Steep City Deficits Predicted in 2009 and Beyond
By Sewell Chan

In what is probably its most alarming forecast in recent memory, the city’s Independent Budget Office today projected a $3.1 billion budget deficit in the 2009 fiscal year, rising to $4.6 billion in 2010 and $6.3 billion in 2011 — largely as as result of the weakening in the housing market and higher labor costs. The office warned that the “the city’s fiscal picture could become even darker” if Wall Street’s economic woes worsen or if the housing market, which in Manhattan has remained strong, further declines.

The conclusions in the five-page report suggest that whoever succeeds Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will be saddled with fiscal problems as serious as the ones Mr. Bloomberg inherited when he took office in 2002 as the city was still reeling from 9/11.

The report underscored the extent to which the city’s economy depends on Wall Street. The New York Stock Exchange member firms reported a collective $3.8 billion loss in the third quarter of this year — the first such loss in nine years. The budget office predicted that the firms broke even in the last quarter of 2007 (the figures aren’t available yet), resulting in only $5 billion in profits for 2007 — a decline of 75 percent from the $20.9 billion in record profits in 2006. Profits will climb slightly, to $8.8 billion this year and $12.2 billion next year, the budget office predicted.

Meanwhile, the financial services industry is expected to shed 5,900 jobs this year and another 4,000 next year — “and then grow very slowly” — according to the report.