LI reports more employed in July than in 2019

More Long Islanders were employed in July than the last July before the pandemic, new data shows.

Last month, the Island had over 1.5 million employed residents, or 0.2% more with jobs this July than there was the same month in 2019, according to a state Labor Department report released Tuesday. The number of employed Islanders is more than 52,000 higher than the 1.4 million employed residents reported in July 2021.

The unemployment rate last month was 3.3%, tied for the lowest rate for a  July since 1990, the earliest year for the data.. The percentage of jobless residents was 4.7% in July 2021.

“The labor market remains strong for workers on Long Island,” Shital Patel, labor market analyst for the Labor Department’s Hicksville office said in a statement. “The last time the unemployment rate was 3.3% in July was in 1998.”

The number of unemployed residents in July — 51,400 — was 10.5% lower than in 2019. 

Behind the year-over-year growth in the number of employed residents has been a more competitive hiring landscape for employers, leading to better opportunities for job seekers.

“A hot labor market is drawing people back to the labor market with prospects of higher pay and broader opportunities,” Patel said. “More people who were on the sidelines may also feel the pressure to go back to work as high inflation is taking a bigger chunk out of their savings cushion.”

From June to July, the Island did see a 0.4 percentage point increase in its jobless rate, when an increase of 0.2 percentage points is more common, Patel said. On a month-over-month basis, the Island saw the number of employed drop by 1,600 while the number of jobless Islanders grew by 6,200.

John Rizzo, economist and professor at Stony Brook University said the report “looks like good news” at a time when many Islanders may be feeling that the economy is in less than stellar shape.

“Overall, the economy doesn’t feel good because of all the uncertainty,” Rizzo said.

The upward pressure on interest rates, combined with lingering supply chain shortages, geopolitical tension, and a “quite volatile” stock market has created lackluster economic conditions. 

“Despite the low unemployment, people on Long island and elsewhere are feeling the pinch,” Rizzo said. “There’s a lot of concern still.”

The municipality with the highest unemployment rates last month was the Village of Freeport at 4.2%. Long Beach as well as the towns of North Hempstead, Huntington and Southampton all tied for the lowest jobless rate at 2.8%.

The jobless rate in New York City was 6.6% in July month, down from 10.1% the same month in 2021. The state’s rate was 4.8%, down from 7.1% a year ago.