Nassau Unemployment Rate Decreases Slightly

The unemployment rate is improving by the smallest of margins.

A state labor department report released on Sept. 16 says the Town of Hempstead's unemployment rate dropped .2 percent between July and August and .7 percent since January. That means that 109,000 residents from the Town of Hempstead who were unemployed in January now have jobs.

As far as Nassau County goes, the unemployment rate dropped just 0.1 percent between July and August and .06 percent since January.

"The recovery in New York State's labor market slowed somewhat in August as we only added 2,500 private sector jobs over the month," says Norman A. Steele, deputy director of the Division of Research and Statistics. "In addition, our statewide unemployment rate increased from 8.2 to 8.3 percent, but remained well below the nation's rate of 9.6 percent in August."

A year ago August, the county's unemployment rate was 7.0 percent, compared to this August's 6.8 percent.

In all of 2008, the unemployment rate was lowest in April (3.7 percent) but peaked in December at 5.5 percent.

Long Island had 11,300 more private-sector jobs in August than it did in the same month a year ago, a 1.1 percent increase according to the labor department release.

In late August, Sen. Kemp Hannon R-Garden City, hosted a job fair that included more than 70 employers looking to hire and 700 residents out of a job.

"In these tough economic times, many Long Islanders are struggling to pay their monthly phone bill and their upcoming mortgage payment," says Hannon. "It is my hope that people walked away … with an opportunity to obtain an income and at the very least, real networking connections to land a job."

On Friday, Oct. 8, Sen. Craig Johnson, D-Port Washington, will host a job fair at Nassau Community College where more than 40 companies will be in attendance, including Jet Blue, FedEx, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, North Shore LIJ, Stop 'n Shop and more.

Labor force statistics, including the unemployment rate, for New York and every other state are based on statistical regression models specified by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.