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Long Island recovers jobs lost to the pandemic but at a slower rate than the nation, north Jersey

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Long Island recovers jobs lost to the pandemic but at a slower rate than the nation, north Jersey

Long Island has recouped the full number of jobs it lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the rate of recovery has been far slower than in northern New Jersey and nationwide, according to a data analysis released on Tuesday.

Employment in Nassau and Suffolk counties was up 0.4% in March compared with February 2020, before the coronavirus struck, the data shows.

Employment in New York City was up 0.3% in the same period.

However, both the city and the Island lagged the job growth of the nation, which was 3.8%, and northern New Jersey, which ranged from 2.2% to 4.7%, based on the data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and the research firm Moody’s Economy.com.

Joelle Scally, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said the differences are due to the strengths and weaknesses of economic sectors in each area. For example, health care is a big employer on Long Island and that sector bounced back from the COVID-induced recession of 2020, she said.

“There has been a strong recovery in that sector over the last year,” Scally said during a briefing for journalists on Tuesday when the bank released its analysis of employment data for 2020-24.

“Almost 1 in 5 Long Islanders are employed in the health care sector. … And I think the strong growth in that sector” helped overall employment, she said in response to a Newsday question.

The jobs recovery in Nassau and Suffolk also benefited from a new pool of employees: people who moved out of New York City and other densely populated places where the coronavirus spread rapidly, according to Jaison R. Abel, head of the New York Fed’s urban and regional studies department.

“The availability of workers is a key factor to growth,” he said. “Long Island has actually done a little bit better job than other parts of the region … in being able to attract workers, whether that’s people who left New York City or just attracting people from other parts of the country.”

Abel said northern New Jersey benefited from an influx of working-age people as well.

In the Garden State, the jobs recovery has been strongest in Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties, where employment was up 4.7% in March compared with pre-pandemic times. Newark was up 3.4% in the period and Bergen, Hudson and Passaic counties rose 2.2%, according to the data analysis.

North of New York City, in Orange, Rockland and Westchester counties, the number of jobs is still 0.3% below pre-pandemic levels. The same holds true for most of upstate, the data shows.

Abel said employment in New York State’s 10 regions has returned to 2019-early 2020 growth rates.

“We’ve shifted out of this recovery phase and resumed kind of normal growth patterns,” he said. “People have changed their behavior to some extent back to the pre-pandemic way and businesses look like they did before.”

Nationwide, the Villages community in Florida, which has attracted thousands of senior citizens from New York State and elsewhere, had the most employment growth between February 2020 and March, up 23.8%. No. 2 was St. George, Utah, up 19.6%, and Austin, Texas, 17.9%.

The areas with the most jobs still to recoup are Lake Charles, Louisiana, with employment down 14% in the period, followed by Kahului, Wailuku and Lahaina, Hawaii, -11.1%, and Kankakee, Illinois, -6.9%.

Richard Deitz, a New York Fed economist, said job shortfalls remain in more than one quarter of the country’s metropolitan areas, including many communities near the Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean.

“A lot of small metros are at the bottom,” he said. “These places were struggling before the pandemic with population [loss] … Immigration is one way that some of these areas can increase their labor forces” and to resume growing.

Long Island has recouped the full number of jobs it lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the rate of recovery has been far slower than in northern New Jersey and nationwide, according to a data analysis released on Tuesday.

Employment in Nassau and Suffolk counties was up 0.4% in March compared with February 2020, before the coronavirus struck, the data shows.

Employment in New York City was up 0.3% in the same period.

However, both the city and the Island lagged the job growth of the nation, which was 3.8%, and northern New Jersey, which ranged from 2.2% to 4.7%, based on the data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and the research firm Moody’s Economy.com.

Joelle Scally, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said the differences are due to the strengths and weaknesses of economic sectors in each area. For example, health care is a big employer on Long Island and that sector bounced back from the COVID-induced recession of 2020, she said.

“There has been a strong recovery in that sector over the last year,” Scally said during a briefing for journalists on Tuesday when the bank released its analysis of employment data for 2020-24.

“Almost 1 in 5 Long Islanders are employed in the health care sector. … And I think the strong growth in that sector” helped overall employment, she said in response to a Newsday question.

The jobs recovery in Nassau and Suffolk also benefited from a new pool of employees: people who moved out of New York City and other densely populated places where the coronavirus spread rapidly, according to Jaison R. Abel, head of the New York Fed’s urban and regional studies department.

“The availability of workers is a key factor to growth,” he said. “Long Island has actually done a little bit better job than other parts of the region … in being able to attract workers, whether that’s people who left New York City or just attracting people from other parts of the country.”

Abel said northern New Jersey benefited from an influx of working-age people as well.

In the Garden State, the jobs recovery has been strongest in Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties, where employment was up 4.7% in March compared with pre-pandemic times. Newark was up 3.4% in the period and Bergen, Hudson and Passaic counties rose 2.2%, according to the data analysis.

North of New York City, in Orange, Rockland and Westchester counties, the number of jobs is still 0.3% below pre-pandemic levels. The same holds true for most of upstate, the data shows.

Abel said employment in New York State’s 10 regions has returned to 2019-early 2020 growth rates.

“We’ve shifted out of this recovery phase and resumed kind of normal growth patterns,” he said. “People have changed their behavior to some extent back to the pre-pandemic way and businesses look like they did before.”

Nationwide, the Villages community in Florida, which has attracted thousands of senior citizens from New York State and elsewhere, had the most employment growth between February 2020 and March, up 23.8%. No. 2 was St. George, Utah, up 19.6%, and Austin, Texas, 17.9%.

The areas with the most jobs still to recoup are Lake Charles, Louisiana, with employment down 14% in the period, followed by Kahului, Wailuku and Lahaina, Hawaii, -11.1%, and Kankakee, Illinois, -6.9%.

Richard Deitz, a New York Fed economist, said job shortfalls remain in more than one quarter of the country’s metropolitan areas, including many communities near the Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean.

“A lot of small metros are at the bottom,” he said. “These places were struggling before the pandemic with population [loss] … Immigration is one way that some of these areas can increase their labor forces” and to resume growing.

WHAT TO KNOW

  • Long Island has regained all the jobs it lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks in part to strong hiring by health care institutions.
  • Employment growth on the Island was stronger than in New York City but lagged the nation and New Jersey, according to economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
  • They said the metropolitan area has returned to job growth rates seen in 2019 and early 2020.

James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news including the economy, development, and the relationship between government and business. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.

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