Long Island jobless rate drops to 4.5 percent

Long Island’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.5 percent in January, the lowest for the month since 2007, state data released Tuesday show.

In January 2015, the rate stood at 5.3 percent.

Nassau tied with Tompkins County, the home of Cornell University, for the lowest January 2016 jobless rate in the state — 4.2 percent, the state Labor Department said. Suffolk’s was 4.8 percent, ranking it seventh.

Though the Island’s January 2016 rate declined year over year, it rose from December’s estimated rate of 3.9 percent, which was later revised to 4 percent. The rate typically rises between those months because of the layoffs of seasonal workers, said Shital Patel, labor-market analyst in the department’s Hicksville office.

In fact, the department uses year-over-year comparisons because the local data aren’t adjusted for seasonal swings.

The Island’s unemployment rate has dropped significantly since the peak of 8.2 percent hit in 2010 and 2012, in the aftermath of the last recession.

The latest year-over-year improvement reflects a jump in the number of employed residents, which rose by 36,700 from January 2015. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed Long Islanders dropped by 10,100.

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The discrepancy between the two numbers indicates that some discouraged workers who had given up looking for a job and weren’t counted as unemployed, have jumped back into the labor market and found employment.

“Most of the people that are re-entering the labor force are finding work,” Patel said.

The unemployment data are based on a Census sample of Island residents regardless of where they work. But the business survey, which was released last week, counts jobs on the Island. That report’s year-over-year increase in January — 18,700 jobs — was the most robust since September.

All told, the Island had 1.410 million employed residents in January, still below the 1.415 million in pre-recession January 2007.

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The number of unemployed Long Islanders fell to 66,800. But it’s still above the 60,300 pre-recession total in January 2007.

“So there is still room for continued improvements in Long Island’s labor market,” said John A. Rizzo, chief economist of the Long Island Association, the region’s largest business group.

The state’s jobless rate for January was 5.5 percent on the same unadjusted basis; the nation’s was 5.3 percent.