New York sees drop in unemployment

New York’s unemployment rate dropped by 0.4 percentage points in May, as the state ramped up its reopening effort amid a national push to vaccinate the country against the coronavirus.

The state’s unemployment rate dropped from 8.2 percent in April to 7.8 percent in May, according to Labor Department data cited by The Wall Street Journal. Other states in the northeast saw similar drops, the Journal reported.

The increase in employment was especially high for jobs that require in-person interaction with customers, according to the data cited by the Journal. New York saw more than 7,000 hires in the leisure and hospitality industry. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) lifted most COVID-19 capacity restrictions on business and restaurants on May 19. That followed the state gradually raising capacity limits for businesses and restaurants, which helped jumpstart New York’s recovery.

The latest decline in the state’s jobless rate comes after a year marked by restrictions on businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to layoffs and company closures.

As a result, New York’s unemployment rate skyrocketed to 16.2 percent in April 2020 from less than 4 percent earlier that year, according to the Journal.

Other states in the northeast saw similar drops in unemployment in May, according to the Journal.

Rhode Island and Delaware saw the largest jobless rate decreases in the Northeast last month, according to the Journal, both tracking a 0.5 percent drop. 

New Hampshire and Vermont were the states with the lowest unemployment rates in May, both reporting percentages under three percent, according to the Journal.

New Jersey recorded a 7.2 percent jobless rate and Pennsylvania was at 6.9 percent last month, both of which are higher than the national average, the newspaper noted. Pennsylvania, however, saw more than 10,000 new hires in the leisure and hospitality industry.

Job recovery efforts, however, have proved to be stronger in other regions of the country. Idaho’s May unemployment rate was 3 percent, according to the Journal, and South Dakota’s was 2.8 percent.

Those two states have both regained all the jobs they lost throughout the pandemic, the Journal reported.

The U.S. labor market in May added 559,000 jobs, which caused the unemployment rate to fall from 6.1 percent to 5.8 percent.