New York City could lose up to 165,000 jobs, including up to 35,000 in the financial sector, over the next two years due to the economic downturn, Comptroller William Thompson Jr. said last week.
The new forecast is a sharp increase over a July estimate of 85,000 job losses, which included a contraction of 25,000 jobs in the financial services sector.
The comptroller’s office didn’t release new projections for reductions to city revenue, which it projected in July would be about $2.4 billion less in the current fiscal year than it was in fiscal 2008. “That forecast likely will be downgraded,” the office said in a report.
Thompson said that despite problems in the city’s economy, it shouldn’t cut back on its capital projects.
“I don’t think we’re going to abandon our capital plan at all,” he said. “You may be able to slow things down a little … but you can’t abandon your capital plan — if you do the city starts to crumble in different ways.”
