Long Island Private-Sector Jobs Slip as Health and Education Hiring Masks Broader Weakness

LONG ISLAND, NY – Long Island’s labor market showed signs of slowing in August, with private-sector employment falling slightly from a year earlier even as education and health services continued to add thousands of jobs.

Long Island had 1,194,100 private-sector jobs in August 2026, a decline of 800 jobs, or 0.1%, from August 2025, according to the New York State Department of Labor. By comparison, private-sector employment increased 0.3% statewide and 0.5% nationally over the same period.

The overall decline was small, but the industry-level data shows a much more uneven labor market.

Only three of Long Island’s nine major private-sector industry groups added jobs from August 2025 to August 2026. Private education and health services added 10,300 jobs, other services added 1,200, and professional and business services added 600. Government employment, which is not included in the private-sector total, increased by 1,100 jobs.

At the same time, six major private industries employed fewer people than they did a year earlier.

Key Facts & Details

Sources: New York State Department of Labor and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. August payroll figures are preliminary and not seasonally adjusted.

Health and Education Account for Most of the Growth

Education and health services remained Long Island’s largest major private employment sector, with approximately 320,800 jobs in August.

That was 3.3% more than a year earlier and represented an increase of 10,300 positions, according to state labor officials. The category includes a broad range of employers such as hospitals, medical offices, nursing and residential care facilities, social assistance organizations, colleges, schools and other educational services.

The size of that increase is significant when compared with the overall private-sector decline.

Combined, the three private industries that expanded added about 12,100 jobs. Because total private employment nevertheless declined by 800, the six contracting private-industry groups collectively lost approximately 12,900 jobs.

The result is a labor market in which substantial hiring in one large portion of the economy is offsetting weakness elsewhere.

Six Major Private Industries Lost Jobs

The sharpest percentage declines occurred in information, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality.

The figures show that information employment was down 4.4% from August 2025, the largest percentage decline among the major sectors. Financial activities fell 4.1%, while leisure and hospitality employment declined 3.9%.

Construction employment was down 1.7%, manufacturing declined 1.3%, and trade, transportation and utilities fell 0.5%.

Despite those losses, total nonfarm employment, which includes government, stood at approximately 1.3895 million jobs in August and was essentially unchanged from a year earlier. Government employment totaled approximately 195,400, up 0.6% year over year.

A Noticeable Change From July

The August figures also represent a change from the picture seen only a month earlier.

In July, the New York State Department of Labor reported that Long Island private-sector employment was 7,500 jobs, or 0.6%, above its July 2025 level. Education and health services alone had added 13,900 jobs over that period. By August, the year-over-year private employment comparison had turned slightly negative.

Monthly payroll levels on Long Island are affected by predictable seasonal patterns, however, particularly in education, tourism, hospitality and other industries. For that reason, the year-over-year comparisons are more informative than simply comparing the raw July and August job totals.

Jobs and Unemployment Measure Different Things

The payroll figures should also not be confused with Long Island’s unemployment rate.

Payroll employment measures jobs located at businesses and government workplaces in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The unemployment rate comes from a different statistical program and measures Long Island residents who are in the labor force, including people who may work outside the region.

The latest Long Island resident labor-force figures currently displayed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics are for July 2026. They showed a civilian labor force of approximately 1.557 million people, about 1.497 million employed residents and approximately 59,500 unemployed residents. The not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 3.8%.

That distinction is particularly important on Long Island, where many Nassau and Suffolk residents commute to jobs in New York City or elsewhere.

Long Island’s Labor Market Is Becoming More Uneven

The August numbers do not show a broad collapse in employment. Long Island still supports nearly 1.4 million nonfarm payroll jobs, and the decline in private employment was only 0.1%.

What the figures do show is that job growth is no longer broadly distributed across the regional economy.

Education and health services added more than 10,000 jobs over the year, while six of the nine major private-sector groups contracted. Without the continued expansion of education and health services, Long Island’s year-over-year employment picture would have been considerably weaker.

Whether August represents a temporary slowdown or the beginning of a longer period of weak job growth will become clearer as additional monthly employment reports are released this fall.

The August figures are preliminary and can be revised as additional employment data becomes available.