LI unemployment rate dropped to 3.9% before coronavirus impact

Long Island’s unemployment rate for the start of the year indicated the continuance of a positive trend for most job seekers, though economists say the numbers don't reflect the impacts of the novel coronavirus  on the labor market.

Overall, the Island’s unemployment rate in January was 3.9%, down 0.2 percentage points from the same month a year ago, according to state Labor Department data released Tuesday.

The jobless rate in January 2019 was 4.1%.

“The impact of the coronavirus isn’t in these numbers, and they probably won’t be in February’s unemployment numbers,” said Shital Patel, labor market analyst in the Labor Department's Hicksville office.

“It is unclear when the negative impacts of the coronavirus will show up in these statistics,” she said.

In Nassau County, the unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percentage points from a year ago to 3.6% in the first month of the year. Suffolk County’s unemployment rate fell to 4.2% in January, down 0.2 percentage points from the same time last year.