Onondaga and Oneida counties saw the largest year-over-year wage gains among large counties in New York state, while Staten Island saw the sharpest rise in employment during a 12-month period, a new analysis of data released Wednesday by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics found.

The data cover the period between June 2020 and June 2021, encompassing a time period immediately after New York state lost millions of jobs amid an economic shutdown during the pandemic and the wide availability of vaccinations and many public gathering spaces reopening. The information provides a window into how the economy recovered and was reshaped by 12 crucial months of the pandemic.

 

 

Staten Island saw an increase of employment by 14.5% during that time, while second quarter wages increased in 11 of New York's 18 largest counties. Onondaga and Oneida counties, both in central New York, saw the largest wage increases of 5.9% and 5.8%, respectively.

New York's economy has struggled to regain all of the jobs lost since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The state shed about 2 million jobs in the initial weeks of the public health crisis, and the jobless rate as of December remains higher than the rest of the country. The hospitality and tourism sectors have been especially hard hit.

Still, employment increased in 18 of New York's largest counties, and was among 39 states, along with Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, to see gross job gains exceed losses in the second quarter of 2021.