The June unemployment rate on Long Island fell to 3.8 percent, the lowest rate for the month of June since 2007, according to statistics released last week by the state Department of Labor.
That was an increase for the region from the 3.5 percent rate in May but down from 4.3 percent in June 2017. In Nassau and Suffolk counties, 11,600 jobs were added in June to increase employment to 1.471 million people, the highest number since the state began tracking the region’s employment numbers in 1990. There were 57,400 people unemployed, up 5,000 from May but down 7,400 from a year ago.
Of the two counties, Nassau had a slightly lower unemployment rate in June: 3.7 percent, compared with 3.8 percent in Suffolk. For Nassau, that was up slightly from May’s unemployment rate, but a decrease from 4.2 percent in June 2017 and 7.2 percent in June 2012, which was the county’s highest rate of unemployment in June since 1992. During the Great Recession, Nassau’s unemployment rate peaked at 7.8 percent in January 2010.
There were about 700,300 people employed in Nassau last month, the first time the county has broken the 700,000 mark since the state began tracking county employment in 1990. June’s number was an increase from 683,900 in May and 694,800 in June 2017.
The number of unemployed in the county also increased between May and June, from 24,400 to 27,000, but it was down from 30,000 in June 2018. The number of unemployed last month was almost half the number during the peak of the Great Recession, when the county had almost 53,000 unemployed in January 2010.
Among the counties, Columbia County, located southeast of Albany, had the lowest rate of unemployment at 3.3 percent. In addition to Columbia, only Saratoga and Yates counties had lower rates than Nassau.
St. Lawrence County, located along the Canadian border northeast of Watertown, had the highest unemployment rate in June at 6.0 percent.
Unemployment for the New York City metropolitan area was 4.3. Nationally, the unemployment rate was 4.0.
Reach reporter Luke Torrance by email at ltorrance@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516-307-1045, ext. 214, or follow him on Twitter @LukeATorrance.
