Long Island lost 10,000 more jobs last year than previously thought

The new number of job losses for the year - 93,500 - was a key finding from the state Labor Department's annual revision of the previous year's unemployment data; above, Wellwood Avenue in Lindenhurst. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Long Island lost 10,000 more jobs last year than previous data indicated, according to new numbers from the state.
The new number of job losses for the year – 93,500 – was a key finding from the state Labor Department's annual revision of the previous year's unemployment data, said Shital Patel, labor market analyst in the department's Hicksville office.
"We had a much larger decline in the number of employed residents last year, but no real change in the number of unemployed," she said.
A decrease in the number of employed residents in concert with a negligible change in the number of unemployed residents – those out of work but actively job hunting – suggests that more Islanders may have left the labor force, either through early retirement, a shift to secondary education or by becoming what economists refer to as "discouraged workers."
"It didn’t really show up in the unemployment rate but there was a sort of change in the picture of what happened last year," Patel said.
The Island’s jobless rate for 2020 was revised up from 8.4% to 8.5%, Patel said.
In addition to the changes in December, the state also revised April’s record-breaking jobless rate from 16% up to 17.5%, raising an already high watermark even higher.
Patel commented on the change in the number of employed Tuesday after the state released its monthly unemployment rate for January. That month, the jobless rate for the Island rose to 6.4%, less than a percentage point above December's rate of 5.8%, according to the Labor Department.
January’s jobless rate in 2020 was 3.8%.
December’s rate was revised upward from 5.5% originally to 5.8% as part of the state’s revision.
Historically, a rise in the Island’s unemployment rate is common in January, as many employers let go of seasonal hires brought on during the holiday shopping season.
"The change between the December and January rates was actually a pretty typical seasonal increase," Patel said. "Between December and January, we usually have an increase of eight-tenths of percentage point. This year it was an increase of six-tenths of a percentage point."
On the Island, the municipality with the highest unemployment rate in January was Hempstead Village at 10.4%. The locality with the lowest rate that same month was Smithtown, with a 5.0% jobless rate.
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