Politics & Government

Babylon Town Leads County in Unemployment

The good news is that the latest state labor statistics show a slight dip in unemployment since September.

Babylon Town holds title to the highest town unemployment rate in Suffolk County, but the good news is that the figure dipped slightly in the past month, according to monthly statistics released today by the state labor department.

As of October 10, the rate was 7.6 percent, with 8,685 unemployed town residents. In September the figures were 7.8 percent and 8,791 unemployed. Babylon has a civilian labor force numbering 113, 555. The number employed as of October was 104,870.

Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone was not available for comment on the latest figures by press time.

Find out what's happening in Babylon Villagewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Lindenhurst Village's unemployment rate as of October was 7.5 percent  and Islip Town's unemployment rate was 7.3 percent. Babylon Village's figure is not provided as its population does not meet statistical requirements, according to the labor department.

Babylon Town's unemployment change illustrates an overall jump in the Long Island private sector employment picture, as employment increased 1.1 percent in the past year.

Find out what's happening in Babylon Villagewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Long Island's unemployment rate was 6.9 percent as of October, the same it had been for September but is quite a bit lower than the 7.1 percent back in October, 2009. Suffolk County's rate as of October was 7.0 percent.

"The overall report is pretty positive. The numbers track fairly closely to the national data. We're doing better than the national economy," said Gary Huth, Long Island economist at New York State Department of Labor.

"It's slow but improving. There does appear to be some degree of certainty of the viability of recovery. But the speed of the recovery is a little slower that we'd like to see," Huth added.

According to state figures there are 10,900 more jobs on Long Island than in October, 2009.

"We are growing at a rate of 1.1 percent a year.  It's not gangbusters, certainly, but it's significantly better than it was earlier," said Huth. 

The state economy gained 40,500 private sector jobs, the largest monthly increase since April, 2005.  Its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.3 percent between September and October 2010. 

"New York State's labor market has regained some of the momentum it lost earlier this year.  In October, we added 40,500 private sector jobs which is the most since April 2005.  In addition, our unemployment rate held steady at 8.3 percent, remaining well below the nation's rate of 9.6 percent," said Norman A. Steele, deputy director of the Division of Research and Statistics, in a statement.

The U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.6 percent over the past month. 

 


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