Long Island Unemployment Continues Decline To Pre-Pandemic Levels

LONG ISLAND, NY — The area's unemployment rate for November remained at pre-pandemic levels for the second month in a row, and actually decreased further than they were in October.

According to data from the state Department of Labor, the unemployment rate in November was 3.5 percent for Long Island, which was even lower than the 3.9 percent recorded in October.

It means that November had the lowest unemployment in the area since the pandemic began last March. Then, unemployment was at 4.1 percent. Last April, unemployment skyrocketed to an all-time high of 17.5 percent. That new record was more than double than the peak of the Great Recession that began in 2008.

Last November, the unemployment rate on Long Island was 5.8 percent. In terms of jobs, there were 84,900 people unemployed this time last year, compared to 49,800 this year.

Statewide unemployment was at 5.5 percent for November 2021, which is also the lowest it's been since the pandemic began. However, it's not back to the pre-pandemic levels, when unemployment was hovering around 4 percent.

The hardest-hit area continues to be New York City, which has an unemployment rate of 8 percent, or 315,700 people out of work. That's the lowest it has been since the pandemic began, but still more than double the pre-pandemic levels.

Long Island's unemployment rate had been falling steadily since the April peak, but was still at historic highs for most of the last year. Unemployment jumped back up to over 6 percent in January and February.

This September was the first month since the pandemic began when Long Island's unemployment was finally lower than the Great Recession that began in 2008, when it topped out at 8.2 percent in early 2010, according to statistics from the Department of Labor.