These payroll employment revisions improved the relative post-pandemic picture of the performance of the remote-working industries in New York City (see the percent change columns in the middle and right-hand side of Figure 1). As of February, the remote-working industries as a group had increased net employment by 3.4 percent since the onset of the pandemic in February 2020. This net change was considerably higher than the pre-benchmark Feb. 2020-October 2024 0.4 percent growth. The sizable upward revision in construction jobs helped offset some of the continued weakness in several face-to-face group industries. Overall, since the onset of the pandemic, face-to-face industries have seen a 6.0 percent employment decline. The upward revisions in state government and home health care employment lifted the essential industries from a net 12.3 percent gain to 15.2 percent growth.
While the growth pace recorded in 2024 (December 2023-December 2024) was roughly similar to the prior year’s growth for the essential and face-to-face sectors, the remote-working sectors recorded 2.8 percent job growth in 2024 compared to a 2.2 percent decline in 2023.
Private job trends for New York State and the rest of the state outside of New York City
The strength of New York City’s upward benchmark revision through December 2024 meant that the state’s private employment growth rose by 1.8 percent in 2024 (measured from December 2023 to December 2024), exceeding the state’s 1.5 percent growth pace for 2023.
This upward benchmark revision was also unique in the context of slowing national job growth.
The annual revision showed a 600,000-job downward revision for all U.S. states combined. For the nation overall, private job growth slowed in 2024 to 1.2 percent from 1.4 percent in 2023. New York State had one of the largest positive revisions (40,000) in net private employment, but this was entirely due to New York City’s upward revision of 69,000 jobs. As a point of comparison, Texas, California, Missouri, and Pennsylvania all had sizable downward benchmark revisions. However, despite the revision, New York State’s and New York City’s post-pandemic job growth still lags the majority of other large states and the nation as a whole.
Additionally, this revision shows the disparate growth within New York State. In 2024, the city gained private sector jobs at a 3.0 percent pace while the rest of the state slowed to a net gain of only 0.5 percent (see Figure 3). Comparing February 2025 to before the pandemic, New York State has recorded a 1.6 percent private job growth, but it has been driven by job growth in the city, while the suburbs and upstate New York have experienced a net decline of 0.2 percent.
Figure 3
