Long Island Unemployment Falls, Approaches Pre-Pandemic Levels

LONG ISLAND, NY — Long Island's unemployment rate keeps declining as the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns continues. But there are still many more people out of work than at this time last month.

The state Labor Department released preliminary unemployment data for March 2021, which saw Long Island's unemployment rate at 6 percent — higher than the March 2020 rate of 4.1 percent, right before the pandemic hit the economy hard. That's down from February, which had an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent.

Unemployment on Long Island jumped to a staggering 17.5 percent last April as the pandemic closures hit the area hard. It was the highest unemployment rate on record — more than double what happened during the Great Recession that started in 2008.

The March unemployment rate for Nassau County was 5.9 percent, and 6.1 percent for Suffolk. That equates to 40,700 and 46,100 people out of work, respectively.

Long Island's unemployment rate had been falling steadily since the April peak, but was still at historic highs for most of the year. Unemployment jumped back up to over 6 percent in January and February, and is now coming back down.

September was the first month since the pandemic began when Long Island's unemployment was finally lower than the Great Recession that began in 2008, when it topped out at 8.2 percent in early 2010, according to statistics from the Department of Labor.

New York City is still the hardest-hit area in the state, with an unemployment rate of 11.2 percent in March — which is 462,100 people out of work. That's down from the May high point of 20.2 percent.

Statewide, the unemployment rate in March was 8.5 percent, which equates to 798,700 people out of work. That's down fro February, when the statewide unemployment rate was 9.7 percent.

According to the state, the unemployment numbers come from a survey of 18,000 businesses in New York, which does not include self-employed workers, agricultural workers, unpaid family workers and domestic workers employed by private households.