Manhattan job losses in Q3 worst of any large county in the US

The average wage that workers earned in the third quarter of 2020 rose 7.4 percent from the previous year — a troubling sign for low-wage earners, and the job market as a whole.

According to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people employed dipped by nearly 7 percent year-over-year, hitting 138.5 million at the end of the third quarter. Employment decreased in 355 of the 357 counties the report tracks, and wages rose in 350 of those counties — an indication of “substantial employment loss among lower-paid industries,” according to the Bureau.

Workers in leisure and hospitality have been the hardest hit by the Covid-19 virus, especially in tourist-dependent regions such as Maui County, Hawaii, where a staggering 67 percent of those employed in the industry — or almost 17,000 people — lost jobs. Overall employment there fell by more than a third year-over-year, according to the report.

Of the 10 largest counties tracked, New York suffered the largest employment loss over the year that ended in September, with a nearly 16 percent decrease in employment. Once again, leisure and hospitality took a huge hit, with over 182,000 of those workers losing their jobs.

The city also lost two-thirds of jobs in entertainment, recreation and the arts, erasing a decade of economic gains in an industry which drew millions to the city each year, Bloomberg reported.