Jackson Heights Life

Various estimates project that during the next six months to a year, one-third to one-half of the City’s restaurants and bars that existed prior to the pandemic may close permanently. If one-third of them close, the City would lose nearly 8,000 establishments in the industry, and 106,000 jobs. If the closures rose to 50 percent, nearly 12,000 restaurants and bars would shutter and almost 159,000 jobs would be lost.

These data suggest restaurant closures and lost restaurant employment are likely to have a disproportionate impact on immigrant workers, on Hispanic or Asian workers, and on the neighborhoods where a large number of restaurant workers live.

Among all the City’s neighborhoods, Jackson Heights/North Corona had the most residents working in the restaurant industry, Elmhurst/South Corona had the second-highest, and together the two areas accounted for 24,000 restaurant workers, nearly one in 10 citywide.

Neighborhood    Restaurant Workers
Jackson Heights/N. Corona    12,371
Elmhurst/S. Corona    11,625