LI's Unemployment Drops To Historically Low Levels

LONG ISLAND, NY — The unemployment rate on Long Island held steady from April to May, remaining at the lowest rate it has been in decades.

The unemployment rate for the area was 2.7 percent in both April and May, down from 3.4 percent in March, according to the state's Department of Labor. The area also had a 2.7 percent unemployment rate in December. Before that, the last time unemployment was that low was in 1998.

According to state data, there are 42,000 unemployed Long Islanders. While that number is big, it's 24,500 less than the same month last year.

Still, it's nowhere near the historic highs that were hit when shutdowns began in earnest for the COVID pandemic. In April 2020, unemployment on Long Island skyrocketed to an all-time high of 18.2 percent. That new record was more than double than the peak of the Great Recession that began in 2008.

Statewide, the unemployment rate for May was 4.4 percent, which is much lower than the all-time high during the pandemic of 16.5 percent, which was set in May 2020. The state seems to once again be returning to pre-pandemic levels of unemployment: the statewide unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in Feb. 2020.

The hardest-hit area continues to be New York City, which has an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent, which is 225,700 people without jobs. While it's still high, it's about half of the unemployment the city saw in May 2021.