Unemployment Rises in Glen Cove

The unemployment rate in Glen Cove jumped from 6.5 to 7.0 percent in November — a move which follows Long Island and county-wide trends -- according to the New York State Department of Labor report released on Thursday.

Glen Cove's rate increased two tenths of a percent since this time last year when the local jobless rate was 6.8 percent, labor statistics show. The economic progress in Glen Cove has been drastic since January, when the unemployment rate peaked at 9.5 percent.

 president Mary Stanco believes the city's economy will improve as projects – such as the waterfront, Villa townhouses, ferry terminal, and Glen Isles – are developed.

"All the big businesses are leaving Glen Cove because taxes are too high and commercial rent is too expensive," Stanco said. "We need to get better and bigger. We have all of these projects going on that will create new jobs; we need to get going."

Long Island's unemployment rate leapt to 7.2 percent in November, up .3 percent from last year and 6.9 percent in October. Nassau's unemployment rate – which remained stable at 6.8 percent from August through October – is now at 7 percent. 

While the local economy appears to have regressed over the past month, Gary Huth, labor market analyst for NYS Department of Labor, said that the region is on the road to a slow but positive recovery.

"I don't want people to see this as a discouraging number," Huth said. "People have been ramping up their job search. It's an anemic number, but not one to pull back from a job search."

From last year, Huth reports a significant improvement in the job market.

"The good news is the job count stayed positive from a year ago," Huth said. "The momentum has been weaker than we'd like to see, but it's still positive. The unemployment rate did go up. It's hard to identify the cause of that. The most likely culprit is the weak hiring in retail trade, and people going in to look for those jobs and not being able to find them. Most of the other indicators look more positive."

While there's weakness in retail trade, "the numbers can be revised upward and downward," Huth said. "I'm not reading this as a real solid sign that the improvement in the economy has stalled. It's not a terrible number, but it's weaker than we'd like to see."

Vincent Abbondandolo, co-owner of the said that the rise in unemployment rates is seasonal.

"It may have something to do with outdoor day workers who can't work in the winter," he said.

While each week, there are , is one of the few downtown businesses that currently displays a sign advertising hiring.

Barista Zach Linden said that while they have received several inquisitions on jobs, the Glen Cove location hasn't hired recently: "We aren't a high volume location," said Linden. "We pass on all applications to the online database."