Unemployment on Long Island (blog 6)

(Link to trailer here: http://youtu.be/LkS2uEqaL5s) In 2012, an HBO documentary was aired about unemployment on Long Island. The film, Hard Times: Lost on Long Island, focuses on a few people. Throughout the film, the subjects compared their current struggle to tragedies and problems they had experienced in the past. "Having cancer was easier than being unemployed," said one of the subjects, Anne. She lost her PR job in 2008. 

The people in the film are well educated and were successful. The couple in the film were living "the fairy tale." The wife was a teacher and the husband was a doctor yet now they are unemployed and in foreclosure. People say that unemployed people are "lazy" but not all are! Throughout the film, the subjects speak about the countless jobs they have applied for. They don't get the job because they are "over qualified" or for other reasons. How can someone not get a job for being over qualified! People need jobs!

Thankfully, things have started to changes since then. The unemployment rate on Long Island has dropped. The State Labor data released that Long Island's April unemployment rate decreased to the lowest it's been in six years! The rate fell to 4.5 percent in April from 5.9 percent a year ago. The number of unemployed residents on Long Island decreased by 21,500 to 65,900. The number of employed residents increased by 6,900 to 1.40 million.