Comptroller Stringer Analysis: CUNY Graduates Earn Combined $57 Billion Annually, Highlighting CUNY’s Significant Contributions to Local and State Economies

(New York, NY) – Today, New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer released a new analysis highlighting the City University of New York’s (CUNY) significant contributions to the City and State economies. The report provides a comprehensive overview of CUNY’s economic impact, showing that 79 percent of CUNY graduates work full time in New York State after graduation, earning a combined $57 billion annually in 2019 and paying an estimated $4.2 billion in State income taxes in 2019. Nearly 850,000 CUNY graduates work full time in New York State, representing approximately 10 percent of the total private-sector workforce in the state and 17 percent of the workforce with a higher education.

“As a CUNY graduate myself, I know first hand how CUNY opens up opportunities for its students,” said New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. “CUNY is an engine of social mobility and must be at the heart of any plans for our recovery from the devastation of COVID-19. Few institutions better reflect New York’s incredible diversity and it is time that we as a city recognize the power of CUNY and adequately invest in its students and its teachers. There is no economic recovery for New York without a strong and well-funded CUNY system.”

Drawing on data provided by the CUNY Office of Institutional Research and Census data on Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO), this new analysis revealed the following findings:

CUNY Graduates in the Workforce 

More than 1 million graduates from CUNY in the last thirty years (1991 through 2020).

• The number of graduates increased by almost 150% in the last three decades (54,500 in 2020 compared to 22,400 in 1991).
• The number of graduates increased by 42% just in the last decade.
• 64 percent of CUNY graduates are persons of color
• 64 percent of CUNY graduates are women

79 percent of CUNY graduates work full time in New York State after graduation.

• Nearly 850,000 CUNY graduates work full time in New York State, representing:
• Approximately 10 percent of the total private-sector workforce in the state;
• 17 percent of the workforce with higher education;
• One third of those with an Associate’s degree and 18 percent of those with a Bachelor’s.

Earnings of CUNY Graduates 

• CUNY graduates working in New York earned a combined $57 billion annually ($67,000 on average) in 2019 — $28.6 billion more than students would have earned without a postsecondary degree.
• CUNY graduates working in New York paid an estimated $4.2 billion in State income taxes in 2019.

According to the Fall 2019 CUNY Student Data Book, over 80% of CUNY students are New York City high school graduates.  85 percent of students are people of color and 35 percent are foreign-born. Half of students come from households with incomes below $30,000.

In October 2020, Comptroller Stringer proposed a comprehensive overhaul of workforce development in New York City, including making CUNY community colleges free for all to build a more competitive and inclusive post-pandemic economy and to better align training with the jobs of tomorrow. With COVID-19 displacing hundreds of thousands of workers and rapidly accelerating long-standing trends in e-commerce, telework, digitization, and automation, Comptroller Stringer’s report called for the City and State to dramatically expand the scale, quality, accessibility, and affordability of education and job training programs. Comptroller Stringer outlined a series of proposals to upskill millions of New Yorkers, dramatically diversify high-wage industries, and generate career opportunities during the current economic crisis and beyond to spur New York City’s recovery. To read the report, click here.

To view the full report, click here.

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