We wouldn’t want to give the impression of being unsympathetic to doormen fighting for higher wages — they provide a useful service and have the same rights as any other workers to try to extract the highest wage possible from their employers — but we wonder if some New Yorkers might find them a bit ungrateful in a time when New York City’s unemployment rate is as high as the Empire State Building. In a time with increased property taxes, and a possible income tax surcharge on the wealthy in the works, it’s lucky more buildings aren’t trimming staff — though that’s something they may have to do if Local 32BJ gets its way on wages and benefits.

New York City’s unemployment rate has shot to 9.2% in February of 2003 from 5.7% in February of 2001. This is well above the unemployment rate for the rest of the state, 4.3% as of February. Part of the spike in unemployment may be attributable to the attacks of September 11, 2001, but the rate has gone up two years in a row. And Mayor Bloomberg isn’t particularly helping matters. While Governor Pataki rails against job-killing taxes — though one has to be wary of what taxes the governor doesn’t believe will kill jobs — Mr. Bloomberg is busy boosting proven pink slip generators.

As the Manhattan Institute’s E.J. McMahon argues on the opposite page, Mr. Bloomberg is set to topple the progress in tax cutting made under Mayor Giuliani. By rewinding tax rates back to Dinkins levels, he will push tens of thousands of jobs out of New York City. The Manhattan Institute’s NYC-Stamp model — which uses correlations based on a quarter-century’s worth of tax and economic data — predicts that Mr. Bloomberg’s 18.5% property tax increase, enacted last November, will eventually cost the city 62,000 jobs. A further tax hike, such as a full percentage point income tax surcharge on New Yorkers with incomes between $200,000 and $250,000, combined with a two percentage point income tax surcharge on those earning more — a plan that a majority of City Council members have supported and Mr. Bloomberg might fall back on — could cost 48,000 more jobs.

So, while everyone appreciates having a door held open, a package accepted, or a taxi hailed on their behalf, now may not be the time to open the door to higher labor costs. “With an 18.5% tax increase, with the possibility of future tax increases, and with the city economy where it is, I think it’s pretty obvious why we’re hard pressed,” the president of the Real Estate Advisory Board, James Berg, told The New York Sun recently. Let’s just hope that wage increase or no, more doormen don’t find themselves shown the door before the mayor is through.