Indicators within Poverty

• Race & Poverty

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the percentages of Asians and whites living below the poverty line.

  What’s the Backstory?
  Poverty can have pervasive, debilitating effects on adults and children. In the US, whites have a much lower poverty rate than other racial and ethnic groups do. Although blacks have the highest rate of poverty nationwide, Asians and Hispanics have the highest rates in NYC.

  What Did We Find?
  This year, the NYCgov poverty rate for Hispanics (24.6%) was higher than the rate for Asians (23.4%). Blacks (21.2%) had a similar poverty rate to Hispanics and Asians, while whites had the lowest rate (13.3%). The NYCgov poverty rate for Asians and whites both decreased slightly from baseline, by 2.4% and 1.0% respectively, although the change in the disparity was negligible. Poverty rates also varied by educational attainment: those with less than a high school diploma were most likely to live in poverty (31.7%) compared to those with a bachelor’s degree or more (8.1%), some college (16.6%), or a high school diploma (23.5%).
• Race & Food Security

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the percentages of Hispanics and whites with low or very low food security.

  What’s the Backstory?
  Hunger and poor nutrition can have severe consequences for people’s health and well-being and jeopardizes children’s development and learning. In the US, food insecurity is disproportionately high among racial and ethnic minorities, children, the elderly, and in low-income households.

  What Did We Find?
  The rate of low or very low food security decreased from the baseline year for both Hispanics and whites: from 29.3% to 19.4% for Hispanics and from 8.5% to 6.4% for whites. Rates decreased for other racial groups as well, with blacks demonstrating the largest drop (from 24.4% to 10.2%) and Asians the smallest (from 10.7% to 10.3%). A disparity in food security also existed between white and Hispanic children: 1.8% of white children had low or very low food security, compared to 7.2% of Hispanic children. Food security also varied by disability status: individuals with disabilities were about three times more likely (24.5%) than their non-disabled counterparts (8.7%) to experience food insecurity.
• Citizenship Status & Poverty

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the percentages of non-citizens and citizens living below the poverty line.

  What’s the Backstory?
  Poverty has severe, pervasive effects on people’s health, education, employment opportunities, and housing, and on children’s development. Nationwide and in NYC, immigrants, particularly those who are not US citizens, have substantially higher levels of poverty than citizens do.

  What Did We Find?
  The NYCgov poverty rate for non-citizens (26.7%) was about 1.4 times higher than the poverty rate for citizens (18.5%), a slightly smaller disparity than at baseline. While the overall poverty rate among citizens was largely unchanged, the poverty rate for non-citizens decreased from 29.5% to 26.7%, contributing to a small improvement in this indicator. Racial groups with higher percentages of non-citizens also experienced higher rates of poverty: nearly one quarter of Hispanics (24.6%) and Asians (23.4%) lived below the poverty line compared to 13.3% of whites, although blacks were not far behind (21.2%).
• Family Composition & Poverty

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the percentages of people in single-parent and two-parent households living below the poverty line.

  What’s the Backstory?
  Poverty has damaging short- and long-term effects for children and adults. It affects almost every area of life, from health to education to criminal justice outcomes. Nationwide, people in single-parent households are markedly more likely to live in poverty than those in two-parent households.

  What Did We Find?
  Single-parent families are disproportionately impacted by poverty. Almost one in three (29.7%) single-parent households lived below the NYCgov poverty line, compared to 16.6% of dual-parent households. Poverty rates for both groups remained similar to the baseline year, but a slightly greater increase in the poverty rate for two-parent households resulted in negligible positive change in the indicator. Poverty was particularly pervasive among children and seniors: just under one in four (22.8%) children and 21.6% of those 65 and older lived in poverty, compared to 18.6% of individuals aged 18-64. Poverty also varied by borough, with the highest rates in the Bronx (27.5%), followed by Brooklyn (21.2%), Queens (18.4%), Staten Island (15.6%), and Manhattan (14.4%).
• Scores in Context: Local Initiatives

  Disparities in poverty rates in NYC continue to persist according to race and ethnicity, family composition, and citizenship status. However, the City has made numerous efforts to combat poverty in recent years, and the impact of these may be reflected in the positive changes we saw within this topic this year. The City also launched several policies and initiatives in 2016 and 2017 that may contribute to change in the coming years.

  At the topic level, recent policies to raise the minimum wage and initiatives to connect New Yorkers to better paying jobs have begun to affect poverty over the last year and may affect future indicator scores. In April 2016, Governor Cuomo signed legislation for a $15 minimum wage throughout New York State, which will be fully enacted in NYC by the end of 2019. Incremental wage increases have already begun: on December 31, 2016, the minimum wage in NYC went from $9 per hour to $11 per hour for companies with 11 employees or more, and to $10.50 per hour for companies with 10 employees or less. According to the 2017 OneNYC Report, this incremental change has already lifted an estimated 281,000 NYC residents out of poverty or near-poverty since 2013. The next minimum wage increase, to $13 or $12 per hour depending on company size, will be enacted on December 31, 2017. The City’s goal is to lift a total of 800,000 New Yorkers out of poverty by 2025 through the full wage increase to $15 per hour combined with City workforce development programs.

  Recent workforce development initiatives aimed specifically at improving employment prospects for NYC residents who participate in public assistance programs may help to reduce the number living in poverty. Since 2016, the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development has spearheaded the local program for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training program, which funds employment and education services for SNAP recipients. The Jobs-Plus program, implemented in 2009 and expanded in 2013, provides on-site job training and support, financial counseling, and rent-based work incentives within public housing developments. In addition, CareerCompass, CareerAdvance, and Business Link are all NYC programs that connect New Yorkers receiving public assistance to job opportunities and training.

  In addition to income support for New Yorkers living in poverty, the City is creating programs for asset building, another anti-poverty strategy. While asset building has a more direct effect on wealth rather than poverty indicators per se, financial stability through savings can help keep people out of poverty by increasing their ability to weather financial emergencies. The NYC Department of Consumer Affairs’ Office of Financial Empowerment, along with Citi Foundation, the New Economy Project, and the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, launched the Collaborative for Neighborhood Financial Health in 2016. This program aims to assess the financial health of low- and moderate-income households in Bedford-Stuyvesant and East Harlem and develop community-based strategies for building personal assets and financial empowerment.

  In addition to general poverty alleviation efforts, several NYC and NYS initiatives aim to specifically address food insecurity for low-income New Yorkers. Given that racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected by food insecurity, it’s possible that some of these efforts contributed to the small increase we saw in the race and food security indicator this year or may do so in the future. In 2016, the City allocated $4.9 million to support emergency food providers in NYC through the Emergency Food Assistance Program. In June 2017, the New York City Council approved an additional $18.4 million in funding for the program, which came as a relief to food security advocates who fear that more New Yorkers will need emergency food assistance due to the major proposed cuts to SNAP funding in the federal budget.

  Access to SNAP specifically has been the focus of both state and local attention. In 2016, Governor Cuomo raised the income threshold for SNAP qualification, allowing an additional 750,000 people to be eligible for SNAP in New York State. During the same period, the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA) streamlined the SNAP application and re-certification process to increase access for eligible New Yorkers. These two initiatives likely contributed to the first increase in New Yorkers receiving SNAP in three years in 2016 and may contribute to additional change in the indicator in future.

  Other food security initiatives may address the disparities highlighted by the race and food security indicator due to the demographic context of targeted neighborhoods. For instance, the Green Carts program situates mobile vendors selling affordable produce in low-income neighborhoods throughout NYC. A 2014 evaluation of the program found that 44% of customers were near the federal poverty line and that 87% were racial and ethnic minorities. The two most represented customer groups were black (42%) and Hispanic (35%).

Indicators within Employment

• Race & Unemployment

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the unemployment rates for blacks and whites.

  What’s the Backstory?
  In addition to its importance to individuals’ and families’ wellbeing, the unemployment rate is a reflection of the labor force and the broader economy. In the US and in NYC, the unemployment rate among blacks is dramatically higher than the rate among whites.

  What Did We Find?
  Blacks had the highest unemployment rates (8.9%), followed by Hispanics (5.3%), Asians (3.7%), and whites (2.3%). While unemployment decreased for all racial groups from the baseline year, the rate decreased more for whites than for blacks, resulting in a greater disparity this year. There were also disparities based on citizenship status: while the unemployment rate among people born outside the US (4.7%) was similar to those born in the US (4.5%), the unemployment rate for naturalized citizens was only 3.7% while the rate for non-citizens was 6.1%.
• Disability & Unemployment

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the unemployment rates for people with and without disabilities.

  What’s the Backstory?
  Employment is important to most adults’ quality of life and that of their families, and is one measure of the state of the labor force and the broader economy. Nationally and in NYC, people with a disability have a higher unemployment rate than those without a disability.

  What Did We Find?
  The unemployment rate among people with disabilities quadrupled from baseline (from 7.2% to 31.1%), and was almost eight times higher than the rate among those without disabilities (4.0%). The vast majority of people with disabilities (85.6%) were not in the labor force, however, and not included in these rates, compared to 34.2% of those without disabilities. Employment status varied by type of disability: 43.8% of individuals with difficulties seeing were unemployed, compared to 28.8% of those with difficulties walking or climbing stairs. The unemployment rate among individuals with cognitive disabilities (difficulty remembering or making decisions) was 43.0%.
• Probation Status & Unemployment

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the unemployment rates for probation clients and the general population.

  What’s the Backstory?
  A criminal record often creates numerous barriers to employment, even eliminating eligibility for some jobs. More than 3.9 million adults are on probation in the US, and this population has a substantially higher rate of unemployment than people not under such supervision.

  What Did We Find?
  DOP made a significant improvement to their process for collecting employment data since the baseline year; partially as a result, the reported unemployment rate among those on probation dropped from 60.8% to 33.9% this year. Previously, employment data was only collected once during the probation intake process, and this year the Department began regularly updating the employment status of those on probation as they gained employment. Unemployment for the general population remained relatively stable; the change in reporting, coupled with continued DOP efforts to increase employment, likely resulted in the reduction in reported disparities between the two groups.
• Employment Assistance

  What is Measured?
  Percentage of cash assistance recipients who were no longer employed 180 days after being placed in a job.

  What’s the Backstory?
  Research suggests that programs that offer financial incentives, job coaching, and advice after job placement may improve job retention and earnings. Thus, programs that combine cash assistance with employment services may increase job retention and earnings, and help reduce poverty.

  What Did We Find?
  In FY 2017, a total of 598,600 people received cash assistance from HRA and 106,700 received emergency assistance. In addition to monetary benefits, HRA provides employment assistance to current and former recipients of cash assistance. Approximately one quarter (26.9%) of current or former cash assistance recipients were no longer employed 180 days after HRA had helped them to obtain employment, demonstrating a continued lack of employment stability. These numbers have remained relatively stable from the baseline year.
• Scores in Context: Local Initiatives

  Workforce development and job creation have been key goals of Mayor de Blasio’s administration. There are a number of initiatives that have been underway since 2014 which may have contributed to a decrease in unemployment overall in NYC, even if not affecting disparities directly. Several new programs launched in 2016 and 2017 may be reflected in employment trends over the next several years.

  The City has rolled out a number of workforce development programs in recent years that may have contributed to improvements in overall employment numbers in NYC. The Career Pathways initiative was launched in 2014 and focused on building key skills in the NYC workforce and connecting those in the workforce to more jobs. As part of Career Pathways in 2015, the City repurposed $6.4 million for the creation of bridge programs that provide lower-skilled jobseekers with greater access to job-specific education and training programs. Industry Partnerships were also established in 2015 with local businesses in the healthcare, technology, industrial/manufacturing, construction, retail, and food service sectors, aligning sector-specific labor and hiring needs. To support the Industry Partnerships, the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) allocated $21 million to occupational skills programs to prepare jobseekers for in-demand occupations. Additionally, HireNYC, launched in 2015, continues to connect jobseekers with jobs in economic development projects in their area.

  In addition to workforce development efforts of the last few years, new job-creation strategies could further impact employment in coming years. In 2016, for example, the NYC Economic Development Corporation launched two public/private initiatives to expand the local manufacturing and industrial sectors and create more jobs for New Yorkers. Futureworks NYC provided $180,000 in grant money to small manufacturing companies in order to help them grow and create jobs, and the NYC Industrial Developer Fund allocated $150 million of public/private funds to finance the development of industrial workplaces across NYC with the intention of creating at least 1,200 new jobs. The second phase of Futureworks NYC was announced in 2017 with an additional $120,000 in grants, which the City anticipates will create 2,000 more advanced manufacturing jobs over the next five years. Another new program, the 2017 New York Works plan, is more specifically geared toward creating jobs in growing sectors like tech and life science and preparing New Yorkers to access those jobs. The plan aims to create 100,000 middle-class jobs (those that pay at least $50,000 per year or offer a clear path to get there) by utilizing City-owned property for commercial and industrial uses, providing financial incentives for businesses to expand, investing in infrastructure for business growth, and investing directly in industries with clear potential to grow.

  While few City initiatives target the issue of disability and unemployment, Career Pathways’ Vocational Rehabilitation effort within its Wellness, Comprehensive Assessment, Rehabilitation and Employment program has made some strides in reducing barriers to employment for cash assistance clients with disabilities. In 2016, the City estimated that 14,502 people would be enrolled in the program, which connects clients to specialized employment services. The large negative change score for this indicator this year, however, suggests that there may be a need to expand targeted programming for this group.

  The probation status and unemployment indicator has seen large positive change. While some of this change reflects improvements in the way the NYC Department of Probation (DOP) collects and reports employment data (described more fully with the indicator-level findings), new City and State initiatives also provide greater opportunities for employment among individuals on probation. DOP and the NYC Young Men’s Initiative together offer employment and employment-ready programs like Justice Community and Arches that help youth and young adults on probation plan for their future and prepare for employment. DOP also runs the Neighborhood Opportunity Network (NeON), which opened offices in all five boroughs in 2014. NeON is designed to connect probationers to employment training, literacy support, and other services. At the state level, in November 2016 Governor Cuomo announced $6.4 million in grants to fund employment-related programs for individuals on parole, probation, or other court-ordered programs throughout New York State.

Indicators within Income & Benefits

• Race & Income

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the median yearly personal incomes for Hispanics and whites.

  What’s the Backstory?
  In the US and in NYC, an ongoing gap between the income of whites and both blacks and Hispanics contributes to disparities in poverty rates. Blacks and Hispanics who are full-time workers disproportionately earn poverty-level incomes and also have fewer assets.

  What Did We Find?
  Hispanics experienced an increase of almost 20% in median annual income (from $30,075 to $36,000) from baseline. Median annual income increased for whites as well but to a lesser degree (from $59,875 to $62,012), resulting in a smaller disparity between the two. However, median annual income for whites was still more than 1.7 times higher than that of Hispanics. Annual income for whites was also about 1.7 times that of black ($37,400) and about 1.2 times that of Asian ($51,210) full-time workers. There were also large racial and ethnic differences in full-time hourly wages: the median hourly wage for whites was $25.51, compared to $22.44 for Asians, $17.31 for blacks, and $16.15 for Hispanics.
• Income & Retirement Savings

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the percentages of people in the bottom and middle income groups who do not have retirement or pension plans.

  What’s the Backstory?
  Retirement and pension plans increase future financial security, and people with higher incomes are more likely to have them than people with lower incomes. Saving for retirement is important for all income groups, but it is especially critical for middle- and low-income individuals.

  What Did We Find?
  Large income-based disparities in retirement savings remained in 2017: 79.0% of those making less than $30,000 per year indicated that they did not have a retirement or pension plan, compared to 13.5% of those in the middle income group (those making $70-100,000 per year). While we noted a slight decrease in the disparity between the two, this change was due to worsening conditions for the middle income group, rather than improvements for the lowest income group. There were also disparities by racial and ethnic status: Hispanics were the most likely to report not possessing a retirement or pension plan (55.2%), followed by Asians (52.7%), blacks (45.8%), and whites (34.7%).
• Immigration Status & Income

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the median yearly personal incomes for foreign-born and US-born individuals.

  What’s the Backstory?
  People who immigrate to the US have substantially lower incomes than those born in the country, even when they have comparable education and work experience. Although this gap narrows over time as immigrants live and work in the US, it does not disappear.

  What Did We Find?
  The median personal income of full-time workers born in the US ($55,000) was nearly 40% higher than that of foreign-born, full-time workers ($40,014). Incomes for both groups increased proportionately from baseline, resulting in no change to the disparity. Disparities also exist according to citizenship status: median annual income was $47,208 for foreign-born citizens and $34,006 for non-citizens, while the median hourly wage was $21.63 for foreign-born citizens and $14.42 for non-citizens. The median hourly wage for US-born citizens ($22.12) was less than one dollar more than that of foreign-born citizens.
• Gender & Income

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the median yearly personal incomes for women and men.

  What’s the Backstory?
  In the US, women earn about 78% of what men do for full-time work, and this is true across most fields and occupations and isn’t explained by differences in education. The gap increases with age and is more pronounced for black and Hispanic than for white and Asian women.

  What Did We Find?
  While median income increased for both genders this year, the gender pay gap has widened from the baseline year because men’s income increased almost twice as much as women’s. As a result, median yearly income for women working full time this year ($44,296) was about 15% less than the median yearly income for men working full time ($52,024). There was also a gap in median hourly pay, with men earning an hourly wage of $21.63 compared to $19.23 for women. When broken down by educational attainment, however, interesting findings emerge for differences in hourly pay. While men with at least a bachelor’s degree earned more per hour ($32.69) than women with the same educational attainment ($27.47), women with less than a high school diploma earned more per hour ($13.19) than men with less than a high school diploma ($11.36).
• Scores in Context: Local Initiatives

  The City has been working to increase access to better-paying jobs and benefits for New Yorkers through a combination of wage increases, workforce development, equitable hiring practices, and developing plans for retirement programs. Though wage increases impact income more generally, there are also a number of initiatives that address the specific populations reflected in our indicators.

  At the broader level, as discussed in the Poverty topic, the City has committed to raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2019, a major victory for working people struggling to make sufficient income to live in NYC. As noted previously, the current change to $11 per hour is estimated to have brought roughly 281,000 New Yorkers out of poverty.
  Although we did not see change this year, the immigration status and income indicator may in future be influenced by the Career Pathways initiative. This initiative allocated $5.7 million in fiscal year (FY) 2016 to entrepreneurship training for immigrants, childcare providers, craft artisans, and women.

  While the gender and income indicator had a slight negative change this year, we may see improvements in the future in connection with a bill signed by Mayor de Blasio and sponsored by Public Advocate Letitia James in 2017, which bans all NYC employers from asking job applicants about their salary history. The bill expanded upon a Mayoral executive order signed in November 2016 that applied only to city agencies. This policy promotes equality in pay, and could significantly benefit jobseekers who have been stuck in a cycle of wage suppression based on previous wages, particularly women and people of color who have historically experienced wage disparities. The bill could also contribute to further positive change in race and income in future years.

  Two proposed initiatives, if implemented, could help to reduce disparities in the income and retirement savings indicator. In February 2016, Mayor de Blasio announced plans to allow private-sector workers without access to an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan to enroll in a City-organized plan. Comptroller Stringer released the New York City Nest Egg Plan in October 2016 to assist employers in selecting and operating retirement plans for their employees, and automatically enroll employers who do not select a plan into a new NYC Roth IRA plan, with the option to opt-out. Automatic enrollment is an important feature of this plan, as it is a strategy that has been shown to increase participation. While the future of this plan is unclear, it is a promising blueprint for the City.

Indicators within Business Development

• Race/Gender & City Contracts

  What is Measured?
  Percentage of minority and women-owned business enterprise certificate recipients that were not awarded City government contracts.

  What’s the Backstory?
  In the US, women and racial and ethnic minorities face greater challenges to starting and maintaining a business than white men. Minority and women-owned business enterprise certification should increase access to government opportunities, but may not lead to City contracts.

  What Did We Find?
  In FY 2017, there were 5,122 City-certified MWBEs, and 1,131 were awarded City contracts. The City awarded 14,637 contracts with values of less than $100,000 in FY 2017, among which about one third (32.8% or 4,807) were awarded to MWBEs. During the same period, the City awarded 573 contracts with values of more than one million dollars and awarded about one fifth (22.3% or 128) of these large contracts to MWBEs. Rates increased from the baseline year for both small and large contracts awarded to MWBEs, however, and we noted a moderate decrease in the disparity. We note that these data exclude City contracts for goods, because all goods contracts for MWBEs are less than $100,000 dollars in value.
• Race & Business Ownership

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the percentages of blacks and whites who are business owners.

  What’s the Backstory?
  Starting a business fuels economic development and can help alleviate income disparities for racial and ethnic minorities. In the US, blacks and Hispanics own businesses at much lower rates than whites and Asians do, and when they do, their businesses are typically smaller and less successful.

  What Did We Find?
  Considerable racial and ethnic disparities exist in rates of business ownership. The business ownership rate for whites (5.0%) was more than three times that for blacks (1.3%), and the rate for Hispanics (1.8%) was only slightly higher than that for blacks, while Asians (3.9%) fell between Hispanics and whites. We additionally noted a small increase in the disparity between blacks and whites compared to the baseline year. There were also disparities by marital status: married individuals were more likely to be business owners (4.7%) than those who were divorced (3.7%), widowed (2.6%), separated (1.8%), or never married (1.9%).
• Gender & Business Ownership

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the percentages of women and men that are business owners.

  What’s the Backstory?
  Owning a successful business benefits individuals, their families, and communities, and can alleviate income disparities. The number of business owned by women has grown in NYC and the US; however, they are still in the minority among business owners, and women business owners face greater challenges than men when accessing capital to grow their businesses.

  What Did We Find?
  The gender gap in business ownership narrowed from baseline, resulting in a moderate increase in score for this indicator. However, men (4.1%) are still nearly 1.8 times more likely to own businesses than women (2.3%). The business ownership rate also distributes differently across the five boroughs: business ownership is highest among those residing in Manhattan (4.3%), followed by Staten Island (3.5%), Queens (3.3%), Brooklyn (3.1%), and the Bronx (1.7%).
• Location & Business Revenue

  What is Measured?
  Ratio between the percentages of sales tax collected from businesses located outside and within Manhattan.

  What’s the Backstory?
  Business development fuels economic growth by creating new jobs, and successful businesses contribute to employment, self-sufficiency, and prosperity. An increase in the proportion of business taxes paid in given parts of a jurisdiction reflects business development in those areas.

  What Did We Find?
  Manhattan continues to generate the majority of sales tax collected from the five boroughs (63.4%), generating more than 1.5 times the percentage collected from all other boroughs combined (36.6%). This disparity has remained relatively stable from 2015 to 2017. Within the other boroughs, 14.1% of sales tax was collected from Brooklyn, 14.0% was collected from Queens, 6.6% was collected from the Bronx, and 1.9% was collected from Staten Island.
• Scores in Context: Local Initiatives

  Alongside its workforce development and jobs creation plans, NYC has a number of initiatives focused on business development. Many of these programs do target specific groups, like women and people of color, and so may be reflected in the changes we saw in specific indicators.

  The positive change in the race/gender and City contracts indicator, for example, may have been influenced by the City’s direct efforts to contract with more MWBEs. The City is progressing toward its goal of awarding $16 billion in contracts to City-certified MWBEs by 2025, having awarded roughly $6 billion dollars (38% of its total goal) between 2015 and 2017. In 2016, the City launched a course as part of a program called the Building Opportunity Initiative aimed at giving more MWBE developers the tools needed to work with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development on affordable housing projects. In September 2016, Mayor de Blasio created the Mayor’s Office of M/WBEs, which focuses on increasing access to city agency services for MWBEs and facilitating the awarding of City contracts to these businesses. With the launch of this new office came the announcement of another goal to award at least 30% of City contract dollars to MWBEs by 2021.

  Other developments that may have influenced the race/gender and City contracts indicator (or may influence it in future years) are efforts at the city and state levels to register more MWBEs. SBS streamlined its application process for MWBE certification in FY 2017 in the hope that the process would be more accessible for businesses. Governor Cuomo also launched the NYS MWBE Certification Assistance Program in 2017 to provide support for MWBEs seeking certification with New York State. Hofstra University is the local partner for this program, and companies based in NYC can apply for state and city certification simultaneously. Since certification is required for City contracts, this program could have facilitated the awarding of more City contracts to MWBEs. Overall, 1,675 MWBEs were newly certified in FY 2017.

  Though the race and business ownership indicator saw slight negative change this year, a number of new initiatives providing support for MWBEs at both the city and state levels could potentially help reduce disparities in business ownership by race and gender in New York in future by making entrepreneurship more accessible to underrepresented groups. At the beginning of 2017, SBS launched the Corporate Alliance Program/Entrepreneurs’ Organization program, a free program that connects MWBEs with mentor entrepreneurs to work towards developing business strategies. In 2017, Governor Cuomo announced the NYS MWBE Business Growth Accelerator Program, an 18-month business development program offering support and training to MWBEs. The NYC partner organization for this program is the Business Outreach Center Network, Inc. While the creation of new businesses is not the direct goal of these programs, the existence of support and resources like these programs could encourage more women and people of color to start their own businesses and may eventually contribute to a reduction in disparities in the race and business ownership and gender and business ownership indicators.

  The gender and business ownership indicator did, in fact, see moderate positive change this year, which may in part reflect SBS’s launch of the NYC Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (WE NYC) in March 2015. WE NYC worked with nearly 1,500 women entrepreneurs by the end of 2016, connecting them to business development resources and support. In March 2017, SBS announced an expansion of the program with 30 new mentors and a new director, which may contribute to additional positive change.

  Finally, the City has made efforts to spread economic development beyond Manhattan, which could be related to the positive change we saw in the location and business revenue indicator. The 2017 OneNYC report highlights that private sector job growth from 2013 to 2017 has been concentrated in the outer boroughs as the City continues to seek balanced economic growth.