2026 edition. Last updated September 2026.
Every year, Long Island small business owners navigate a mix of opportunity and pressure that looks a little different from the year before. This overview pulls together the latest available data on Nassau and Suffolk counties: how many small businesses actually operate here, which industries are growing, what is making 2026 harder than it needs to be, and where local business owners can turn for help. We update it each year, so it is worth bookmarking if you want a yearly gut check on where Long Island small business stands.
Long Island Small Business by the Numbers
Long Island sits inside the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area, one of the largest small business markets in the country. According to the SBA Office of Advocacy's 2025 Small Business Profiles, that metro area is home to 2.6 million small businesses employing 4.1 million people.
Zooming into the two counties directly, the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns data put Nassau County at 48,731 employer establishments as of 2022, employing 550,716 people with an annual payroll of $36.31 billion. Suffolk County's numbers, compiled by the Suffolk County Planning Commission from BLS and Census data, show 54,239 private establishments as of late 2022, with 62% of businesses reporting five or fewer employees and 78% reporting nine or fewer. In both counties, the clear majority of local employers are small businesses by any reasonable definition.
That scale of activity shows up in lending too. Long Island Business News reported that the SBA approved more than $461.6 million in loans to over 1,025 small businesses across Long Island in 2025, supporting or creating over 6,700 jobs in Nassau and Suffolk combined.
Industries Leading Growth on Long Island
Health care is doing the heaviest lifting. New York's Department of Labor 2025 Significant Industries report found that ambulatory health care services alone employed 102,500 people on Long Island, with the broader health care and social assistance sector accounting for roughly one in five local jobs.
That concentration became even more pronounced over the past year. An analysis of Federal Reserve Beige Book data by Long Island Business News found that between March 2025 and March 2026, Long Island added a net 3,700 nonfarm jobs, and effectively all of that net gain came from private education and health services, which added 19,300 jobs on its own. Construction, trade and transportation, business and financial activities, and manufacturing all lost jobs over the same period.
There is a bright spot in construction, though. After 13 straight months of decline, the sector added 1,100 jobs between May 2025 and May 2026, its first year-over-year gain in over a year.
Outside of health care, the region's other growth engines are advanced manufacturing and life sciences. Long Island is home to nearly 35,000 advanced manufacturing jobs and close to 20,000 life sciences and biotech jobs, more than half of them in pharmaceutical manufacturing. The craft beverage industry has also become a genuine local sector in its own right, with more than 130 wine, beer, spirits, and cider producers now operating across the region.
The Biggest Challenges Facing Local Small Businesses
Nearly 89% of Long Island businesses operate with five or fewer employees, which makes the region unusually exposed to cost increases. There is often no buffer of scale to absorb a bad quarter, and that exposure has been showing up in survey after survey this year.
Labor costs rose again in 2026: New York's minimum wage for Long Island climbed to $17.00 an hour on January 1, up from $16.50, with no small business exemption. For any business with hourly staff, that is a direct hit to payroll, layered on top of already-rising insurance, rent, and energy costs.
The 2026 HIA-LI Business Climate Survey, conducted with Citrin Cooperman and Adelphi University, found that taxes, inflation, and workforce retention remain the top concerns among local business leaders. In that survey, 71% cited retention of young professionals as a major concern, and 46% reported increasing difficulty hiring quality candidates, nearly triple the rate reported two years earlier.
Housing affordability has become part of that same workforce conversation. In the same survey, 40% of respondents named housing affordability as the top priority for government investment, and a separate Siena Research Institute survey conducted with PKF O'Connor Davies found that 78% of CEOs consider Long Island's high cost of living a serious barrier to attracting and keeping workers.
Financial cushion is thinner than owners might like to admit. A TD Bank survey found that while 94% of Long Island small business owners feel financially prepared for the next 18 months, 61% said just two quarters of revenue shortfall would make them question their business's future.
For minority-owned businesses specifically, a survey covered by Newsday and conducted by LIU's Hornstein Center found the strongest unmet needs were more networking opportunities (53% of respondents), marketing assistance (40%), and help applying for grants and loans (39%), with many respondents citing a general lack of awareness about what support already exists.
Where Long Island Businesses Are Finding Support
The good news is that Long Island's small business support network is dense, even if awareness of it is not universal. The Long Island Association and its LIA Foundation run a Small Business Support Program that connects owners to SCORE mentors, Small Business Development Centers, Entrepreneurship Assistance Centers, and PSEG's Main Street Revitalization Program.
Direct grant money is also flowing. The L.O.C.A.L. Small Business Grant Program, funded by Optimum Business and the LIA Foundation, is now in its third year and is awarding 40 businesses $5,000 each in 2026, plus two $20,000 grand prizes, one for a Nassau business and one for a Suffolk business. Eligible businesses need 10 or fewer employees.
For hands-on advising, the Long Island SBDC at Stony Brook University has worked with more than 30,259 businesses to date, helping them invest $690.36 million into the local economy and create or save 15,587 jobs. A second SBDC operates out of Farmingdale State College, and Long Island SCORE, chapter 694, offers free mentoring as well.
If you are looking for hands-on help closer to home, you can browse Long Island business consultants and coaches or local chambers of commerce and support organizations, including the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, the Long Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and town-level chambers across both counties.
On the capital investment side, the Suffolk County IDA's 2025 Year-End Report shows a portfolio of 142 active projects producing 11,900 jobs, with 10 new projects in 2025 alone generating $315.3 million in private capital investment.
What to Watch in the Year Ahead
The overall mood among Long Island business leaders is best described as cautiously optimistic. The 2026 HIA-LI survey found that 45% of businesses expect growth this year, down from 52% the year before, but 58% still plan to expand and more than two-thirds expect growth over the next five years.
PKF O'Connor Davies' 2026 Long Island Economic Survey, run with the Siena Research Institute, tells a similar story: 76% of respondents expect to still be in business in five years, down from 84% the year prior. On the technology side, nearly 60% of Long Island companies are now using AI in some form, and 71% of those report measurable efficiency gains.
Heading into 2027, the variables to watch are largely the same ones driving 2026's caution: interest rates, the next scheduled minimum wage adjustment, whether the construction rebound holds, and whether housing affordability improves enough to ease the hiring pressure that has been squeezing owners across nearly every sector.
Common Questions
How many small businesses are there on Long Island?
Most employers in both counties are small businesses. Census Bureau data puts Nassau at roughly 48,700 employer establishments and Suffolk at about 54,200, and in Suffolk 62% of businesses report five or fewer employees while 78% report nine or fewer. There is no single official count of "Long Island small businesses," since definitions differ between the SBA, the Census Bureau, and state agencies.
What is the biggest challenge facing Long Island small businesses right now?
Workforce and cost pressure, closely linked. Surveys of local business leaders point to retaining young professionals, difficulty hiring quality candidates, and the cost of living as the dominant concerns, with housing affordability named as a top priority for government investment. Rising labor costs, including the $17.00 Long Island minimum wage that took effect at the start of 2026, sit on top of that.
Which industries are actually growing here?
Health care is doing most of the work. Private education and health services added jobs at a scale that accounted for effectively all net job growth in the region over the year to March 2026, while construction, trade and transportation, business and financial activities, and manufacturing all declined. Advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and craft beverage remain significant local sectors.
Where can a Long Island business owner get help?
More places than most owners realize, and several cost nothing. SCORE mentoring and the Small Business Development Centers at Stony Brook and Farmingdale State College provide free advising. The Long Island Association runs small business support and grant programs, and both counties have Industrial Development Agencies for larger capital projects.
How current is this page?
It is updated annually as new figures are released, at the same address, with the edition and update date noted at the top. Figures reflect the most recent data available at the time of the latest update, and government data in particular often runs a year or two behind.
This page is updated each year as new figures are released, at the same address, so it stays current rather than becoming an archive. If you are a Long Island business owner looking for support right now, our business directory and resources section are a good place to start.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns, SBA Office of Advocacy, New York State Department of Labor, Suffolk County Planning Commission, Long Island Business News, HIA-LI, PKF O'Connor Davies, Newsday, the Long Island Association, and the Suffolk County IDA. Figures reflect the most recent data available as of publication and will be updated in future annual editions.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or professional business advice. Figures are based on the most recently available data as of publication and are subject to change.
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