Babylon Town Unemployment Rate Rises

June unemployment figures for released Tuesday by the New York State Department of Labor were 8.1 percent, up 0.4 percent since May and exactly the same of as June 2010. In May the rate was 7.7 percent.

According to the labor department, Babylon Town’s unemployment rate was the highest among Suffolk County town data provided by the labor department. Labor department figures show the county’s unemployment rate at 7.3 percent, up from 7.2 percent as of June 2010.

In the , the jobless rate for June was 7.8 percent, down from 8.3 percent in the same month the previous year.

The town's current labor force stands at 113,500 with 104,300 workers employed and 9,200 unemployed. In Lindenhurst the total number of workers in June was 15,000, with 13,900 residents employed and 1,200 unemployed.

Statewide, the unemployment rate was 8.0 percent, up from 7.8 percent in May and less than the 8.4 percent in June 2010. The number of unemployed New Yorkers increased from 751,600 in May to 760,500 in June 2011. New York’s economy gained 13,600 private sector jobs in June.

“However, we remained significantly below the nation’s jobless rate, which increased to 9.2 percent in June,” noted Bohdan M. Wynnyk, chief of Labor Statistics, Division of Research and Statistics, in a press statement.

Long Island’s unemployment rate, 7.1 percent in June 2011, was unchanged from June 2010, only the second time in the past 12 months the figure hasn't declined from year-ago levels.  By comparison national unemployment rate likewise declined, from 9.6 percent in June 2010 to 9.3 percent in June 2011.