Huntington Unemployment Rates Drop to Early Summer Numbers

Huntington's unemployment rate dropped to 6.2 percent in August, returning to the lower rates of late spring.

That's compared to a local jobless rate in July of 6.4 percent, according to the New York State Department of Labor, and 6.6 percent in August 2009.

Huntington's numbers have been up and down over the past four months, from 6.1 percent in May to 6.4 percent – the highest for the period – in July.

"The job market has been improving more gradually than we would like, but it has been improving," said Gary Huth, Long Island economist for the state labor department.

Long Island's jobless rate was 7 percent in August, down from 7.2 percent the month before, and in Suffolk County, 7.2 percent of residents were out of work last month.

Huth said the makeup of a town's workforce has a big impact on jobless rates and the rates are based on where employees live, not where they work.

"The more education in the area, the lower your unemployment rate generally is," he said, adding a good diversification of jobs and skill levels can also help pull a jobless rate down.

The Island as a whole added 11,300 private-sector jobs during the 12 months ending in August, according to the labor department.

"We got off to a fairly strong start early in the year and it's moderated some, but we're still showing growth," Huth said, adding that in August of last year, the Island was still losing jobs.

But uncertainty from employers is still moderating growth and preventing any real return to a pre-recession job market, when the Huntington unemployment rate was around 4.4 percent in August 2008.

"People were so scared that they laid off more than they needed to," Huth said. "But now that they see things getting better, they're still very reluctant to hire, and in some cases they have more productivity so they don't need to."