Analysis Estimates Wantagh-Seaford Areas With Most Unemployment

WANTAGH, NY — The unemployment rate in Wantagh and Seaford is between 10 percent and 14 percent, according to new data analysis that estimates the neighborhood-level impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout.

Analysts Yair Ghitza and Mark Steitz estimated unemployment at the census tract level based on national economic statistics over the last six months. The federal government does not report unemployment data down to the neighborhood level and the researchers modeled the statistics to be consistent with state and national surveys, The New York Times reported. The method allows people to see the vast unemployment differences between neighborhoods and illustrates how many areas were impacted far worse than others. The estimates leave much more room for error than official statistics, the researchers noted.

According to the analysis, the jobless rate in the area was highest at 14 percent in a Seaford neighborhood, from Merrick Road in the north down to the water and from Cedar Creek in the west over to Seafood Creek. Another Seaford neighborhood, from Merrick Road down to the water and from Seafood Creek to Massapequa Creek, saw the next highest jobless rate at 13 percent. Four neighborhoods across the two municipalities were estimated at 12 percent unemployment.

Meanwhile, North Wantagh saw the lowest unemployment rate at 10 percent.

Those numbers generally aligned with Nassau County overall, where the unemployment rate was 13 percent in June, up from 12.1 percent in May and down from a high of 15.6 percent in April, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In March, when New York saw its first confirmed case of the virus, Nassau County had 3.6 percent unemployment.

Meanwhile, the statewide rate for June was 15.7 percent, a new high in the years between 1976 to today, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, the jobless rate declined by 2.2 percentage points to 11.1 percent in June, a number that's 7.4 percentage points higher than June 2019.

Federal pandemic unemployment assistance, in the form of an additional $600 per week to individuals collecting unemployment benefits, ended July 31, though President Donald Trump over the weekend unilaterally extended supplemental unemployment benefits — albeit at a lower rate — by signing an executive memorandum.

New York, particularly, New York City, became the epicenter of the global pandemic earlier this year.

On March 20, Gov. Andrew Cuomo mandated all but essential businesses to completely shut down their operations in order to mitigate the spread of the virus. In just a few months, the state went from a single positive case March 1 to more than 354,000 positive cases and 22,230 deaths by May 20, when the number of new hospitalizations daily dropped below 5,000 for the first time. Cuomo announced the first phase of reopening in New York City on June 8, the 100th day since the state's first confirmed case.

A survey created and published by Hofstra University in early June showed that nearly half of Long Island businesses laid off workers during the pandemic. And of those businesses, nearly all expected to let go of at least 10 workers in the future.

Challenges that continued to impact businesses, as revealed by the survey, included customers' fears of the public health risks of buying from businesses, customers' financial insecurity that precluded them from buying from businesses, and the financial impact of the phased reopening plan on certain sectors.