Azi Paybarah on the news in his morning Briefing:
New York has always been home to the very rich and the very poor, but the gap between them is now bigger than it has been in more than ten years.
Economic statistics released yesterday also show that the poverty rate in New York City jumped nearly a full percentage point, and suggest that the income inequality gap in Manhattan is similar to the one you’d find in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
“What’s odd” an economist told The Wall Street Journal, “is that the increase in the poverty data contradicts the employment growth here.”
More jobs, in other words, hasn’t necessarily meant less poverty.
A spokesperson for Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the numbers are reflective of “a national challenge” facing the economy.
