Report: Sandy hurt LI job market

Long Island had 8,100 fewer people working last month than a year earlier, due largely to superstorm Sandy and government job cuts, the New York State Labor Department reported Thursday.

“Hurricane Sandy had a major impact on Long Island’s labor market,” said department analyst Shital Patel.

The decline worked out to three tenths of a percent and left about 1.3 million Long Islanders employed last month.

Many of the losses were in government jobs. The private sector lost only 2,700 jobs, leaving 1,052,700 last month.

From October to November, the numbers show that private employment on the Island fell by 5,100 -- clearly a result of the storm, said Patel. A gain of 3,900 is more common from October to November, she said. The numbers are not seasonally adjusted.