The Astoria Project Survey: Employment, Health, and Well-being in One New York City Neighborhood During Covid

The Astoria Project survey captures the multi-dimensional impact on a single New York City neighborhood during the Covid-19 pandemic, bringing together economic findings, reflections on health and mental health effects, and perceptions of risk enveloping routine daily activities. While there is considerable evidence that poorer neighborhoods in New York City have borne the brunt of the Covid economic impact, the Astoria Project draws responses from an evolving working-class neighborhood more reflective of middle-income Queens than the city’s deepest poverty and shows how broadly the economic impact has been felt in New York City. From professional salaried employees to low-income gig workers, and from those employed as day laborers or restaurant workers to Astoria residents in health care and public service, the pandemic has taken a toll on the economic, health, and psychological well-being of New Yorkers from all races and ethnicities and across the income spectrum.Conducted between December 2020 and February 2021 and comprising 726 individual responses of workers in Astoria and surrounding neighborhoods, such as Long Island City, the Astoria Project survey offers a unique portrait of workers in one neighborhood’s Covid experience that reveals the depth and breadth of the challenges the city will face at it emerges from the pandemic. Survey results were weighted by industry of employment to approximate the industry distribution of workers residing in Astoria. Economic impacts were widespread and the post-pandemic jobs landscape remains uncertain for many workers. Astoria contains a diverse workforce; the survey included respondents from more than 20 industries. A third of Astoria respondents were furloughed or laid off, with only 38 percent of these dislocated workers having returned to work either fulltime or parttime at the time of the survey. Many workers also lost hours or pay during the pandemic. Two-thirds of all respondents reported that their employment status had been negatively impacted during the pandemic, through job-loss, furlough, lost pay, or reduced hours. More than three-quarters of all households making less than $50,000 per year saw negative employment impacts due to Covid, more than one-and-a-half times the rate of households with annual earnings over $150,000. Despite the extension of Federal unemployment benefits to freelancers and others not eligible for regular state unemployment benefits, more than one in 10 dislocated Astoria workers was unable to access unemployment insurance. Moreover, the survey reveals the deep sense of uncertainty that dislocated workers feel about the opportunities available to them in a post-Covid workforce. Only 42 percent of dislocated workers think that they will be able to return to the same employer post-pandemic and 20 percent think they will have to shift to a new occupation. Together, these factors will create enormous workforce uncertainty in the post-pandemic economy.