Statement on the Passing of Mark Levitan

We at the Community Service Society of New York (CSS) were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our friend and former colleague Mark Levitan on May 20, 2021. Mark worked as a Senior Policy Analyst at CSS from 1997 to 2007, where he made a profound contribution to our understanding of the economic and labor market conditions that keep people mired in poverty.

Mark’s rich legacy of work at CSS includes a series of landmark reports that drew widespread media attention and a concerted response from policymakers. In 2002, he coauthored (with Robin Gluck) a study on the impact of Welfare reform on the employment and earnings of single-parent households—finding that while mothers were entering the labor market in large numbers and generally finding full-time work, this shift, along with the decline of manufacturing and the rise in service-sector jobs in New York City, left many former welfare recipients still earning poverty wages. 

While women were entering the labor market in high numbers due to the economic expansions of the late 1990s, Black men were hit especially hard by the recession of the early 2000s. Mark’s 2004 report on Black male joblessness revealed a stark and galvanizing statistic: nearly half of working-age Black men were jobless, meaning they were either unemployed or not in the labor market. This finding immediately led the city to create new investments in workforce development and training and, longer-term, influenced the creation of the New York City Commission on Economic Opportunity—the precursor of the city department where Mark would later serve as lead researcher and develop a revolutionary new metric for how the city measures poverty. 

At CSS, one of Mark’s most significant contributions to public policy and academic research was his 2005 report defining both the scale of what he termed “disconnected youth”—young people aged 16 to 24 who were not in school or the labor market—and the lack of resources to serve the needs of this population.  This sparked a focus—both within CSS and the broader policy and advocacy community—on expanding pathways to high school completion, including general equivalency degrees and Career and Technical Education, and on new city investments in youth education and training programs.

And in 2006, Mark co-authored a ground-breaking report, with support from the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, on the private security guard workforce in New York City, which employs mostly men of color and individuals without a college education. The report uncovered low wages, lack of job protections, poor training, and lack of career advancement for private security guards—often at the frontlines of public safety. The report captured the lived experiences and challenges facing non-unionized security guards, the imperative for worker protections, and implications for safety in New York City.

Mark is remembered by the CSS community not just as a highly-regarded researcher and advocate, but as a mentor and friend. He lived with a passionate commitment to economic justice as well as a rich appreciation for family, friendship, and the outdoors—enjoying his retirement to the fullest with frequent hiking excursions and time spent with his grandchildren. 

We send our deepest condolences to his wife Gabrielle, their son Dan, and his entire family.

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