Smithtown Unemployment Drops in July

Unemployment within the Town of Smithtown dropped slightly in July.

Smithtown's jobless rate fell to 6.4 percent in July 2011, compared to 6.5 percent in June and 6.8 percent in July of 2010, according to numbers released Tuesday by the New York State Department of Labor.

That means 4,000 were out of work and filing for unemployment benefits in the town.

Smithtown's jobless rate was still among the lowest on Long Island, which as a whole saw 7.1 percent unemployment in July, down from 7.5 percent the year prior.

Suffolk County's jobless rate was 7.4 percent, which fell from the prior year's 7.7 percent. Nassau's unemployment rate also dipped to 6.8 percent, compared to 7.2 percent in June 2010.

Town of Babylon, with 8.2 percent jobless, held the highest unemployment rate in Suffolk, while Southampton town, with 6.1 percent out of work, held the County's lowest rate.

However, drops in unemployment rates do not necessarily indicate an increase in hiring. 

Jim Brown, labor market analyst for the New York Department of Labor said unemployment rates are dipping across the board as the pool of job seekers dries up.

"Sometimes this is a sign that a population is getting smaller," he said. "More commonly, what you are seeing is people giving up on job searches and making decisions to do other things, whether it’s retire, go back to school, or stay home and raise kids instead of working a second family job."