The coronavirus- and coronavirus-shutdown-induced economic cataclysm remains very real in New York City, a tourism-dependent, public-transit-reliant economy where density makes things go. As long as people worry about gathering in large numbers in small spaces, the five boroughs will have serious troubles.
Heartening new Labor Department numbers suggest that nationally, a rebound may come quicker than economists anticipated. In May, an unemployment rate that was expected to rise fell more than a point, to the still-painfully-high 13.3%. The economy added 2.5 million jobs, with restaurants, construction and retail leading the way; hundreds of billions in federal assistance from the Paycheck Protection Program likely provided a big boost.
Everything is relative _ a country with nearly 20 million continuing jobless claims per week has little to crow about, and furloughed workers may have been improperly counted, artificially lowering the jobless rate _ but the May report is far better than the alternative. Hope and pray momentum continues. Hope and pray state reopenings and unwise mass protests do not fuel deadly COVID-19 resurgences that force economies to slam on the brakes again.
As for New York City, the nation's still-shell-shocked coronavirus epicenter and its most important economic engine, businesses will be limping for a while before they walk, and walking before they run. All the more reason for Washington, to whom the Empire State annually sends more than $25 billion more than it gets back, to deliver desperately needed aid.
Do not dare let the possibly fleeting appearance of national momentum leave our reeling city begging on the side of a highway.
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