City Comptroller Mark Levines report reveals the damage NYCs private sector has suffered

New York City keeps making it harder to sign the front of a paycheck — and Comptroller Mark Levine’s latest report should scare everyone who cashes one.Private employers shed roughly 23,000 jobs in September, while private employment outside healthcare and social assistance fell about 32,000 over the past year.Government employment, meanwhile, grew by nearly 10,000 jobs, and healthcare and social assistance added almost 30,000.It’s not sustainable for any city to rely on public-sector employment for its jobs.This should make City Hall ask what it takes to get the private market hiring again.Some of the report’s brightest numbers make that question harder to dodge.Wall Street profits jumped 51% in the year’s first half, office leasing has strengthened, and hotel occupancy topped 90% in September.Yet leisure and hospitality lost roughly 17,000 jobs over the year.Undeniably, there’s money moving through New York: The challenge is getting more of it into New Yorkers’ wallets.That requires businesses willing to gamble on another location, an expansion, another team or another shift.For an owner weighing this question, the answer is brutally simple: Will the return justify the risk?New York City loads the wrong side of that calculation.The city levies a standard corporate income tax rate of 8.85%, with different rates for qualifying firms, on top of state and federal obligations.Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Please provide a valid email.

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Covered unincorporated businesses, including sole proprietorships and partnerships, instead face a 4% tax on taxable business income allocated to the city.It also charges commercial rent tax: an effective 3.9% on covered commercial tenants’ base rent in Manhattan south of 96th Street.Other roadblocksThe city takes a cut simply because a business rents space — b...