Socioeconomic and Spatial Disparities In Economic Crisis Associated With The COVID-19 Pandemic From March 2020 To September 2021 in New York City. (original) (raw)

The COVID-19 pandemic that started in November-December 2019 in Wuhan (China) is one of the worse that the World did face since the Spanish Flu of 1918. Unfortunately, currently, many regions of the world including the US and EU are experiencing their 8th or 9th wave of COVID-19 pandemic despite massive and intensive Vaccination campaign. Furthermore, on December 29, 2022, at 14:00 GMT, Worldometer (2022) finds that worldwide, cases of COVID-19 were about 663, 659, 031. Deaths associated with COVID-19 were about 6, 692, 494 while 635, 734, 177 did recover from COVID-19 pandemic. In US, on the same day (December 29, 2022), cases of COVID-19 were about 102, 407, 740. Deaths associated with COVID-19 were about 1, 117, 194 while 99, 367, 089 did recover from COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, even if currently the Indirect Effects of COVID-19 pandemic seem to be behind us, they were deeply dramatic when they took place during the Emerging, Growth and Maturity Stages of the Pandemic from March 2020 to September 2021. In fact, during this period, the COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with an ' Economic Crisis ' in US and Worldwide (James Michael Walker, 2022). Accordingly, World Economic Forum (2020) found that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the biggest blow to the US economy since the Great Depression of the 30s. In fact, US GDP fell at a 32.9% annualized rate, the deepest decline since records began back in 1947. As a result, according to Pew Research (2020), the COVID-19 outbreak and the economic downturn it engendered swelled the ranks of unemployed Americans by more than 14 million, from 6.2 million in February to 20.5 million in May 2020. The worse case scenario, compared to the 2007-2009 Financial crisis, Pew Research (2020) found that the rise in the number of unemployed workers due to COVID-19 is substantially greater than the increase due to the Great Depression (2007-2009 Financial crisis), when the number of unemployed increased by 8.8 million from the end of 2007 to the beginning of 2010. Furthermore, some experts went far to believe that the unemployment rate was going to reach 20% or more if required measures were not taken to contain and reduce the economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. By so doing, frustration, fear, panic and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns did amplify the already existing Socioeconomic inequalities in Health, Education, Jobs, Income, Wealth and Residential Goods and Services mainly for the Peripheral Populations. In fact, the Socioeconomic Inequalities associated with the COVID-related Economic Crisis were not equally distributed. In fact, they (the inequalities) were more pronounced in Highly Urbanized, Industrialized, Prosperous and Dense Cities and States such as New York particularly for the Peripheral Populations and Spaces. Accordingly, James A. Parrott and Lina Moe (2020) found that in New York City, the Covid-19-related job losses are heavily concentrated among low-wage workers, hitting persons of color, immigrants, young workers, and less educated workers the hardest. Furthermore, James A. Parrott and Lina Moe (2020) found that as New York City re-opens further in coming weeks, more jobs will return but it is likely that recovery will proceed unevenly, with public health concerns overshadowing other forces. While it is impossible to precisely predict where the recovery will be by the end of this year (2020), it is likely that the city could end 2020 with 500,000 to 600,000 fewer jobs than at the beginning of the year,with half of that job deficit stemming from the face-to-face industries including restaurants, local retail, neighborhood services, and arts and entertainment. Unfortunately, these above activities are considered as Unskilled-intensive and Low-skilled-intensive ones. Furthermore, even in the case of COVID-19-Reopening, the vulnerability of the employment of women, Asian Americans, immigrants and workers without a bachelor's degree was going to remain high (Pew Research, 2020). In other words, disparities in economic costs of COVID-19 pandemic is mainly due to the fact that job losses during the economic downturn were concentrated in leisure and hospitality sector which accounted for 35% of the total loss in jobs from February to May while it was only 11% of total non-farm employment in February 2020 (Pew Research, 2020). By so doing, the Disparities in the outcome of COVID-19 Pandemic could be embedded in Structural Dimension. In fact, James Michael Walker (2022) finds that he rise of the Neoliberal capitalism in the 80s has been associated with the Proletarianization Process. As a result, the move towards Service-oriented and Knowledge-intensive Economy in US has concentrated ' Peripheral unskilled and low-skilled workforce ' in the production of low-added and medium-added services while the US Highly-skilled and High-income Workforce has focused on the Production and distribution of Upstream Services. Unfortunately, as US is caught into High-income Trap, Lower and Moderate Income Workforce accounts for 80% of US workforce. Furthermore, low-wage workers account for 44% of US workforce. Of them, more than 50% is working in the leisure and hospitality sector. As a result, while the majority of US workforce such as Peripheral Populations including for example Asian, Black and Hispanic workers were about equally likely to be employed in this sector (leisure and hospitality sector) prior to the COVID-19 outbreak (Pew Research, 2020), the unemployment rate of the above category of populations did increase dramatically when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Therefore, Pew Research Cener (2020) found that about one-in-five Black, Asian and Hispanic workers were likely unemployed in May 2000 . Furthermore, One-in-five immigrants were likely unemployed in May 2020. Moreover, more than one-in-four young adult workers were likely without work in May 2020. Since then, the amplification of the stressors associated with the increase of the socioeconomic inequalities due to the COVID-19 pandemic did put Peripheral Populations at a greater risk of Urban-related Diseases (Chronic Diseases, Obesity, Suicide, Addictions and Mental health and Behavioral Diseases) (James Michael Walker, 2022) that in turn did amplify their already existing vulnerability to COVID-19 and associated mortality. Key Words: The COVID-19 pandemic; Indirect Effects of COVID-19 pandemic; Economic Crisis; Highly Urbanized, Industrialized, Prosperous and Dense Cities and States; New York City; Peripheral unskilled and low-skilled workforce.