In 1997 nearly one-tenth of the city's labor force was unemployed. These citywide averages, as sobering as they are, mask wide disparities between groups. But less than one in five teens has a job and only half of the city's residents 55 through 64 years old is employed. A nearly 15 percentage point gap exits between the employment-population ratio for working age Whites and Black or Hispanic residents of New York City. The burden of unemployment, moreover, is not equally shared.
Unemployment rates are higher for younger than older members of the labor force.
Unemployment rates for male and female New Yorkers are fairly close. But the trend between 1994 and 1997 was not. Male unemployment was stable while the female unemployment rate rose. The unemployment rate for city residents with a college degree, by contrast, averaged little more than 4 percent from 1994 to 1997. Disparities Between New York and All Central City Residents Comparing the labor market status of residents of New York City to city dwellers across the country reveals striking disparities.