Long Island’s jobless rate drops to 4.5%

Long Island’s unemployment rate declined to 4.5 percent in February from a year ago, the lowest for the month since 2007, state data released Tuesday show. In February 2015, the rate was 5.3 percent.

The jobless rate was unchanged from January.

The number of unemployed Long Islanders dropped by 11,100, according to the latest report, which is based on a monthly Census household survey. Meanwhile, the number of employed residents — including those who work off the Island — jumped by 34,900, the Department of Labor said.

The wide gap between the two numbers suggests that more discouraged workers — those job seekers who had given up looking for work because they didn’t believe they could find any — jumped back into the employment market here and found jobs.

“It just shows that there is more optimism about the labor market,” said Shital Patel, labor-market analyst in the department’s Hicksville office.

Last week, a separate survey of businesses showed that while job growth in February remained relatively strong, it slowed from January. The department reported that the Island had 15,300 more jobs last month, compared with a year earlier. That was significantly slower than January’s year-over-year increase of 18,700 jobs.

The department uses year-over-year comparisons because local data aren’t adjusted to reflect seasonal swings in employment.

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The Island now has 1.403 million employed residents, the highest number since 2007. And the number of unemployed Long Islanders totaled 65,400 last month, a nine-year low.

“All of this is consistent with a labor market that continues to strengthen, which is good news for wage increases and consumer spending,” said John A. Rizzo, chief economist for the Long Island Association, the region’s largest business group.

On the Island, Hempstead Village and Southampton Town had the highest jobless rates — 6.4 percent. Long Beach’s 3.5 percent was the lowest.

Around the state, Nassau tied with Putnam County for the second-lowest rate — 4.1 percent. Tompkins County, the home of Cornell University, had the lowest — 3.7 percent. Suffolk and Onondaga tied for eighth, with a 4.8 percent rate. Bronx and Hamilton counties had the highest — 8.1 percent.

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The state’s jobless rate stood at 5.4 percent last month and the nation’s at 5.2 percent, on a seasonally unadjusted basis.