Brookhaven Unemployment Flat in August

Brookhaven's unemployment rate held steady from a year ago in August at 7.5 percent, as the area's labor market continued to show modest growth.

The local jobless rate dipped from July, when 7.7 percent of residents in Suffolk County's largest town were out of work, according to the New York State Department of Labor.

Brookhaven's job market has been showing signs of life since May, the first month unemployment dropped year-over-year since the beginning of the recession. The jobless rate fell again in June and was even in July with the year-ago period.

"We're showing improvement," said Gary Huth, Long Island economist for the state labor department. "But it's not as fast or as strong as we would like."

As it's been in months past, Brookhaven was on the higher end of jobless rates in Suffolk County. The county as a whole posted a 7.2 percent unemployment rate, while other areas like Southampton had just 6.1 percent of residents out of work last month.

Unemployment rates are based on where employees live, not where they work, and Huth said a concentration of financial workers or those that commute to Wall Street could drive up an area's jobless rate in the current environment.

Long Island's overall unemployment rate dropped to 7 percent in August, from 7.2 percent last month and August 2009, and the region added 11,300 private-sector jobs in the year ended last month.

While the local labor market is growing, any large leaps have been squashed by employers' continued uneasiness, Huth said.

"Companies clearly laid off beyond what they needed to because everyone was panicked," he said. "Even though business is better, there's a lot of uncertainty so people are gunshy right now."