A new brief out from the Fiscal Policy Institute titled "The Pandemic Recession" underscores what we have been hearing for months now: That the pandemic recession is having an outsized impact on immigrants and people of color.

Authors Brent Kramer PhD, Shamier Settle, Jonas Shaende PhD, and David Dyssegaard Kallick report that the unemployment rate for immigrant New Yorkers had been lower than their U.S.-born counterparts prior to the recession, but that it’s no longer the case. Today the rate is 15% for immigrants and 12% for U.S.-born. 

According to Kallick, the Fiscal Policy Institute’s Deputy Director, immigrants are heavily employed in the service sector which has seen an enormous hit from COVID.

The brief makes five recommendations to mitigate the issues that both immigrants and undocumented people are facing. These include passing legislation in New York to provide weekly payments to people who are unemployed, but excluded from the state’s unemployment insurance system, and ensuring that all people who work out of the home have the personal protective equipment they need to keep as safe as possible.

You can read the brief and the other recommendations here.