Smithtown’s Jobless Rate Falls in April, Though County, State Fall Faster

The Town of Smithtown’s unemployment rate slid in April to 5.9 percent compared to 6.2 percent in April 2010, according to data released Tuesday by the New York State Department of Labor.

The April 2011 jobless rate was also lower than that of March 2011 when 6 percent of Smithtown's workforce was considered unemployed.

Smithtown was also significantly lower than Suffolk County’s jobless rate, which was 6.9 percent for April, down from 7.4 percent for the same time last year.

Michael Crowell, a labor market analyst with the Department of Labor, said that the pattern was similar to most local towns in the region.

“We had a year where the unemployment rate hasn’t risen so that’s a positive development in the economy,” he said.

Employment numbers are at their lowest for New York, Suffolk County and Smithtown since April of 2009, however labor forces have all shrunken and the number of unemployed has fallen.

The actual number of unemployed workers in Smithtown in April was 3,568 compared with 3,839 in April of last year.

Similar trends played out on higher levels.

Suffolk County and New York State reported jobless rates of 6.9 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively - both the lowest figures for each since April of 2009.

However, about 130,000 fewer people in New York State were employed in April 2011 than in April 2009. In Suffolk County, the number of people holding jobs in the past two years has dropped by more than 10,000.

"That's a funny thing, because the number of unemployed is going down, and the number of employed are also going down," Crowell said. "The labor force as a whole is shrinking. One of the prime causes of that is often discouraged workers ... and for the region as a whole, we're still down 50,000 jobs over a peak about four years ago."

Crowell pointed out that Long Island's unemployment rate in April of 6.6 percent was double than its April 2007 level. 

Riverhead Patch editor Joe Pinciaro contributed to this story.