DiNapoli: Post-Pandemic Unemployment in NYC Persists for Some Demographic Groups

The December unemployment rate in New York City remained higher than pre-pandemic levels for several demographic groups, particularly for youths and Blacks, according to a report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. DiNapoli also found that non-college-educated unemployment is closer to pre-pandemic levels than college-educated unemployment, a major shift from earlier in the decade.

"New York City continues to experience uneven employment across demographic groups, even as overall unemployment has improved since the pandemic," DiNapoli said. "My report found that youths and Black people continue to face elevated unemployment while women, people without children, native-born and those with a college education are more likely to face higher unemployment now than in years past. These findings identify where support may be needed to fuel stronger and more broad-based workforce participation."

The city's unemployment rate of 5.6% in December was higher than the national rate of 4.4%, and even as employment continues to grow, unemployment in New York City remains higher than it did in December 2019, when it was 4%. The unevenness of the city's workforce recovery from the pandemic has been reflected across the demographic and socioeconomic makeup of the labor force, including gender, age, race and ethnicity, education and citizenship status.

As of December 2025, leisure and hospitality, wholesale trade, other services (e.g., personal care and laundry services), retail trade, construction, and manufacturing have not regained their pre-pandemic level of employment compared to the same month in 2019, with manufacturing facing the largest decline of over 21%. These industries have historically employed larger shares of Hispanic and Black people, immigrants and young people.

When the pandemic first hit, workers aged 16 to 24 experienced the highest unemployment rate of all age groups nationwide. In 2024, despite significant improvement, the youth unemployment rate in the city remained higher than pre-pandemic levels, with youth still facing higher joblessness than other age groups. In 2025, youth unemployment in the city fell 1.3 points from the prior year to 11.9% but remains higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 9.6%. Nationally, youth unemployment rose over the past year.

Workers aged 25 to 54 in the city saw their unemployment rate rise over the past year for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. Workers aged 55 to 64 are the only age group whose current unemployment rate is below pre-pandemic levels.

Black unemployment in the city stood at 8.9% last year, over three times higher than for whites and higher than its pre-pandemic rate. Nationally, the Black unemployment rate was 6.9%. Black unemployment has persisted locally since the onset of the pandemic. As some racial and ethnic groups began to recover from the depths of the pandemic, Black male workers in the city saw their unemployment continue to rise in 2021, while those nationally began to recover along with other major racial and ethnic groups.

Hispanics and Asians are still the furthest away from their pre-pandemic unemployment rates, each more than one point above the levels in 2019. Hispanic unemployment declined to 6.3% in 2025 compared to the prior year but was still above its 2019 pre-pandemic rate of 4.9%. Asian unemployment rose in 2025 to 3.5% and was also above its pre-pandemic rate of 1.8%. In contrast, Whites are closest to their pre-pandemic rate and are the only group whose unemployment was under 3% in 2025.

DiNapoli's report also found that some demographic groups have emerged over the past few years as population segments to monitor, including:

• Male unemployment in the city peaked at the onset of the pandemic but declined to 5% in 2025, with significant improvement over 2024. At the same time, female unemployment rose to 5.3% in 2025, up from 4.7% the prior year. While the health care and social assistance industry has led citywide job growth over the past few years, other industries also dominated by female workers have not fully recovered to pre-pandemic employment levels.
• In 2025, 5.4% of working age individuals without children faced unemployment compared to only 4.2% of those with children, a gap that was present even prior to the pandemic. This gap may, in part, be related to age. In 2025, 12.3% of unemployed individuals without children were aged 16 to 24, compared to 5.2% for those aged 25 to 54, who tend to have more job opportunities due to experience.
• In 2025, a much higher share of native-born individuals were unemployed than before the pandemic, whereas the gap for foreign-born workers was significantly smaller. In fact, native-born individuals have struggled to regain their ground since 2022. The difference in recovery has to do, in part, with native-born youth. In 2025, this group faced an unemployment rate of 12.4%, two points higher than for foreign-born young people.
• In 2025, the unemployment rate for non-college-educated individuals was very close to the pre-pandemic level while the rate for college-educated individuals was higher than its pre-pandemic level. Nationally, non-college-educated individuals were slightly further from their pre-pandemic level than college-educated individuals, suggesting some white-collar job growth has been softer locally.

DiNapoli's office will continue to track these important economic indicators and report on the job recovery in the city.

Report

New York City's Uneven Recovery: An Update on Labor Force Trends

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New York City's Uneven Recovery: An Analysis of Labor Force Trends
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New York City's Uneven Recovery: Foreign-Born in the Workforce
New York City's Uneven Recovery: Youth Labor Force Update