Astoria workers study shows high unemployment and uncertain future
/
A new study showed the workers of Astoria face an uncertain future post-COVID. Photo by Edsel Little/Wikimedia Commons
By Jacob Kaye
Researchers have taken a microscope to the COVID recovery and focused in on the heavy toll the pandemic has taken on the workers of Astoria.
The study published by the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School and the Consortium for Worker Education, is based on a survey of over 700 workers in the Western Queens neighborhood and shows how they’ve been impacted by the pandemic – both financially and socially.
The study found that a high rate of workers in the neighborhood, chosen for its working class, middle-income and diverse make-up, were unemployed at some point during the pandemic, are struggling to find work during the city’s recovery and are in need of both employment and mental health services to recover from the pandemic’s effects.
The survey shows that workers of color in Astoria were hardest hit in myriad ways by COVID-19.
Black workers reported the highest rate of unemployment at 39 percent, the study said. Latino workers had an unemployment rate of 34 percent, white workers had an unemployment rate of 25 percent and Asian and other races and ethnicities reported an 18 percent unemployment rate.
Of the unemployed Astoria residents surveyed, one third were laid off during the pandemic and only 38 percent have returned to work either full-time or part-time.
The high rates of unemployment have had drastic effects on local income, with two-thirds of respondents saying they’ve lost income. Three-quarters of workers from households making less than $50,000 per year saw less money in the past year.
But beyond the economic impacts, the survey also explored the deeper psychological and emotional effects the pandemic has wrought on Astoria’s workers.
“While all of these economic impacts are still being felt, the mental health and emotional effects of COVID are illustrated by this survey to be deep and pervasive,” said author of the report L.K. Moe, who also serves as the assistant director for Economic Policy of the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Project at the Center for New York City Affairs.
“When we asked respondents about their immediate needs, their emergency needs, alongside simply cash assistance, was a need for mental health support,” she added. “Tying together that high level of anxiety and mental health needs with economic needs was made very clear in the report.”
As jobs disappeared and bank accounts shrunk, survey respondents said their home lives were marked by sickness, death and fear — all piled atop balancing working from home, providing family care and overseeing remote learning, according to the report.
A staggering 85 percent of Astoria residents surveyed said they had a close family member who was diagnosed with COVID-19, the report found.
“[We knew] hunger and health was a deleterious burden for the workers of Astoria but when we asked if they had three wishes, they wanted money and a job – their second wish was counseling,” said Joe McDermott, the executive director of the Consortium for Worker Education.
“We always suspected it was hard staying home, we always suspected that it was hard not having money or being hungry or feeding your children, or to not know what your future articulated,” he added. “For the millennials of Astoria, with their careers damaged and down the drain, what did that do to their brains? What did that do to their emotions?”
Many of the workers surveyed said they were worried about what sort of jobs, if any, they’d be able to get as the city continues its recovery. Around 42 percent of dislocated Astoria workers said they think they’ll be able to return to their old employers post-pandemic, while 20 percent said they think they’ll have to change occupations.
“The post COVID economic landscape is just going to see enormous movement and uncertainty,” Moe said. “A lot of these workers who have seen income loss, have seen high levels of food and housing insecurity, also just don't know what jobs they're going to be able to find in the post pandemic economy. And that level of uncertainty is going to have both economic and social impacts.”
