Long Island lost more jobs than estimated in 2020

Long Island lost more jobs over 2020 than originally estimated, according to revised state data released Thursday.

Over the 12 months from January 2020 to December of last year, the Island lost 139,200 jobs — about 13,000, or 10%, more than initial monthly jobs data had shown, the state Labor Department said Thursday.

The higher loss of jobs locally was presented as part of a revision of jobs data conducted annually by the state.

For the year, the Island had 1.21 million jobs, after revisions, according to Labor Department data, down from 1.35 million jobs in 2019.

Still, the economy has recovered a large chunk of jobs lost between the start of 2020 and April of last year. In total, the state saw a net loss of more than 1 million jobs in 2020, a decline of 10.3%. New York finished the year with nearly 8.8 million jobs, according to revised data.

"We are in a better position than we were at the worst point of the pandemic," said Shital Patel, labor market analyst in the department’s Hicksville office. "As with the rest of the nation, we’re not fully out of the woods yet."

While the job situation across the state remains bad, says Gregory DeFreitas, senior labor economics professor at Hofstra University, he agrees that the Island has made noteworthy progress in recovering jobs lost early in the pandemic.

"Since then, we’ve been slowly increasing the number of jobs," he said. "We’re still down … but we’ve cut in half the job losses that we were experiencing in that plunge in April."

While many Long Islanders continue to look for work, some were lucky to find new positions earlier on in the pandemic.

After losing his job in December of 2019, Scott Ross, 63, of Holbrook, struggled to find a new position.

"I was looking to do temp work," Ross said of his job search in early 2020.

After applying for many places, he was approached by Lowe’s out of the blue, he said.

"In June Lowe's came to me. They found my resume on Indeed," Ross said. "They offered me a position as a cashier at $15 an hour."

What started as a part-time seasonal position became a full-time offer in September, along with a bump in pay, Ross said.

"Lowes gives their part-time and full-time employees pandemic bonuses."

In addition to the annual revised data, the state also released job creation numbers for January, which showed a month-to-month loss of 37,800, smaller than the average loss of 52,000 jobs for the month.

Job losses from December into January are typical, Patel said, as many businesses – especially retailers – let go of seasonal hires following the holiday shopping season.

Employment was down in all nine private sectors in January, according to the state, with leisure and hospitality leading the losses.

The hospitality sector was down 32,400 jobs in January from a year before, and down 6,100 jobs from December.

Mark Irgang, president of the Long Island Hospitality Association said that hospitality business has faced unprecedented job losses from entry level workers all the way up to corporate executives.

"There’s a lot of pain," Irgang said. "I think it’s been probably one of if not the most difficult years that I’ve experienced in my 35-year career."

Despite the heavy losses, though, he said he’s hopeful that the vaccine rollout, combined with the warmer weather and consumers' pent-up demand for travel and leisure activities will greatly aid hospitality this summer.

"Slowly but surely, I think we’re seeing a light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "Still, the tunnel may be long."

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