Nassau County and Town of Hempstead Show Decrease in Unemployment

Nassau County saw a small decline in unemployment for the month of December, according to statistics released on Thursday by the state's Department of Labor. The unemployment rate fell from 6.9 percent in November to 6.7 — a little less than 2,000 residents gained employment from November to December of 2010. When compared to county statistics from December 2009, unemployment rates actually stayed the same at 6.7 percent.

In the Town of Hempstead, unemployment also decreased from November to December of last year, falling from 7.3 to 7 percent. A little more than 1,100 residents gained employment during that time frame. When comparing December 2009 stats to last December's numbers, unemployment dropped slightly in the 12-month span, from 7.1 to 7 percent.

"The Town of Hempstead is doing what they can do obviously," said Ron Mare, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Bellmores. "... The rate in the Town of Hempstead seems to be going down faster than the County, which might be slight, but it's still an idication that at least they're getting the idea of what's going on."

Mare added that tax relief is still the most important way to decrease the unemployment rate. "We need to get some tax relief to create a surplus to hire people," he said.

Michael Crowell, a senior economist for the state labor department, noted that Long Island has fared better when compared to state and national unemployment rates. "The data lists the local unemployment rate at 7 percent, the state rate at 8 percent, and the national rate at 9.1 percent," he said.

He added though, that local numbers have basically remained the same. "The thing that jumped out is that the 2010 and 2009 tied for the highest unemployment rate in December in this data series, which started in 1990." Asked why, Crowell said, "The recession is the short answer."

Crowell noted that in 2009, Long Island lost 40,000 jobs over the year. Now there are gains in the private sector.

"Just as that's happening, government is losing jobs, putting a damper on the gains made in the private sector," he said. "Those job losses are mainly in the local school districts. We lost 4,500 jobs in government as a whole compared to the year prior." The cuts, he said, were "due largely to cuts in state aid."

Crowell added: "We had 22 months of job losses in June 2008 through March 2010. From April through December, we had nine months of straight job gain."

According to the latest data, job gains were made in state government education – state universities and colleges and community colleges, where jobs jumped 13.2 percent, and food services and drinking places, up 7.5 percent.

"Things are getting better," Crowell said, "but not very fast."