Town and County See Slight Drop in Unemployment

Unemployment in both Nassau County and the Town of Oyster Bay dropped slightly  in August according to statistics released Thursday by the state Labor Department.

The Town unemployment rate for the month was 6.4 percent down from 6.5 percent in July.  That figure has remained steady for the past year with the unemployment rate in the town was 6.6 percent.  

There were 10,211 town residents without jobs in August compared with 10,422 who were jobless a month earlier.

The picture was much the same in Nassau County where the unemployment rate stood at 6.8 percent in August with nearly 48,000 people out of a job.   The jobless rate in the county was 6.9 percent in July and 7 percent a year ago.

While the unemployment rate has stabilized, job growth only inched forward last month.

"The recovery in New York State's labor market slowed somewhat in August as we only added 2,500 private sector jobs over the month," says Norman A. Steele, deputy director of the Division of Research and Statistics. "In addition, our statewide unemployment rate increased from 8.2 to 8.3 percent, but remained well below the nation's rate of 9.6 percent in August."

Long Island had 11,300 more private-sector jobs in August than it did in the same month a year ago, a 1.1 percent increase according to the labor department release.

"It seems low, but that's the trend we've had from year to year. After a deep hole, we need to be stronger to get out of that hole," says Gary Huth, regional analyst for the New York State Department of Labor, adding, "It's not where we want to be or need to be. And we've had some volatility in the numbers..."

But Huth says there is stability in the overall labor market. 

"Sure, there are some problems. But the economy is more stable. The population is better educated and somewhat older [than elsewhere in the state]," he said. "This particular downturn has had more of an impact on white-collar workers and older workers, but they still tend to do better."

Areas affected in Nassau included financial services and professional and business services – law firms, architectural firms, advertising. While Huth doesn't have defined data at this level, he said "it appears that these groups are seeing significant improvement." Nassau is a service economy and tends to have lower unemployment rates than a manufacturing economy.

Sen. Kemp Hannon  (R-Garden City) recently hosted a job fair that included more than 70 employers looking to hire and 700 residents looking for a job.

"In these tough economic times, many Long Islanders are struggling to pay their monthly phone bill and their upcoming mortgage payment," says Hannon. "It is my hope that people walked away … with an opportunity to obtain an income and at the very least, real networking connections to land a job."

Labor force statistics, including the unemployment rate, for New York and every other state are based on statistical regression models specified by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Adina Genn contributed to this article.