What's behind surging government layoffs on LI
Layoffs of federal and local government workers have accelerated in the past six months. The next surge may come among state workers. Credit: iStock
A closer look at Long Island employment data released Thursday shows how rapidly jobs losses have accelerated among federal and local-government employees in the past few months.
In January, the Island had 200 fewer federal jobs, compared with a year earlier, according to state Labor Department data. But by May, there were 4,100 fewer federal jobs.
In January, the Island had 1,700 fewer local government jobs, compared with a year earlier. By May that decline had accelerated to 3,100 jobs, compared with a year ago. Most of those losses were from school-district layoffs.
Government layoffs have racheted up so much that they wiped out employment growth on the Island in May, the first net loss for the local economy in a year. The private sector had 3,800 more jobs. But the government sector more than eliminated that gain by cutting 8,600 jobs.
Some local experts expect more of the same since big state layoffs are looming.
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