New York's unemployment rate between July and August fell from 7.6% to 7.4% and the economy added 28,000 jobs in the private sector, the state Department of Labor announced on Thursday.

The state added more jobs at a faster clip than the rest of the country, but New York's unemployment rate remains higher than the national average, at 5.2%. 

New York's economy shed 2 million jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic as restrictions on businesses were put in place to limit the spread of the virus. The tourism and hospitality sectors, crucial to New York City's economy in particular, were among the hardest hit.

Many of those guidelines and requirements have now been lifted since the spring in New York. But unemployment is yet to fully recovery to levels seen prior to the pandemic. 

Still, New York's private sector job count increased by 5.4% over the year in August 2021, a slightly higher rate than the U.S. economy as a whole.