Town of Smithtown Unemployment Drops Slightly in May

The Town of Smithtown’s unemployment rate fell slightly in May to 6.1 percent, showing a year-over-year improvement despite a slight uptick over the past month.

Smithtown’s unemployment rate is down 0.3 percent from 6.4 percent in May 2010, according to data released by the New York State Department of Labor on Tuesday. However, the May 2011 rate is also slightly higher than April 2011’s unemployment rate of 5.8 percent.

"Unemployment is always highest in the winter, so what we're seeing since then is pretty much a seasonal pattern, " said Michael Crowell, a labor market analyst with the Department of Labor.

Overall, the Town of Smithtown continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates on Long Island, tied with the Town of Huntington. Smithtown is well below the Suffolk County average of 6.9 percent, down  from 7.2 percent in May 2010.

Crowell said these numbers reflect a larger regional trend as unemployment is decreasing on Long Island from 7.1 percent to 6.7 percent in May 2010, but remains above average.

Health care and retail trade are among the stronger industries, Crowell said, with retail adding 2,500 across Long Island over the past year. Meanwhile, manufacturing and information technologies were the major losers in the private sector, the analyst said, down 1,800 and 900 jobs respectively.

A big hit to the economy came from the public sector as government is down 8,600 jobs on Long Island this month, said Crowell, who called the figures misleading.

“Roughly half of the decline is due to census workers and the other half more or less is local school districts, which are taking a big hit, laying off teachers and other staff members,” he said.

The May figures may not show early gains from the addition of seasonal jobs in the tourism industry, as leisure and hospital sector only gained 100 jobs over the year. Crowell said it’s an interesting area to watch as Long Island’s tourism industry tends to grow during difficult economic times.

“Long Island is a relatively affluent place. A lot of people spend their vacations in Europe or other parts of the States,” he said. “If times are bad, sort of conversely, they end up staying here so you see the local leisure and hospitality number go up.”

Smithtown’s unemployment rate is lower than New York State, which stands at 7.8 percent, down 0.5 percent from May 2010 when the jobless rate stood at 8.3 percent. It is lower that the national rate of 8.7 percent.

Three Village editor Christine Sampson contributed to this story.