Brookhaven Sees First Jump in Unemployment Rate Since Last Summer

Almost a full year of neutral or downward unemployment levels came to an end in June. 

Data released Tuesday by the New York State Department of Labor revealed that unemployment in the Town of Brookhaven slightly rose to 7.4 percent in June, up from 7.3 percent in June of 2010.

It was the first jump in Brookhaven's unemployment rate since July of 2010, when an 8 percent unemployment rate topped 7.8 percent the year prior.

Across Long Island, 7.1 percent of the workforce was estimated to be unemployed in June, the same as it was one year ago. This is coupled with an overall decrease in the labor force on Long Island.

"At this point in a downturn that’s usually an indication of discouraged workers," said Michael Crowell, senior economist for the New York State Department of Labor. "People just stopped looking for work. Unless there’s some more job growth, yes [this will continue]."

Brookhaven's workforce dipped to 259,100, down from 262,700 in June of 2010. The number employed in the Town dropped by 3,600 in the past year.

Crowell blames the lack of jobs and said that this was just the second time in the past year the unemployment rate has not dropped.

"If you look at the job numbers, there were three months in the beginning of the year when we added more than 10,000 jobs," he said. "It looked like a recovery was right around the corner but in June not only did we not add jobs but we ended up losing private sector jobs for the first time in a year."

The one bright spot he sees is the passing of the Green Jobs Financing Law. This would aid in the creation of jobs in the environmental sectors by making on-bill financing possible for energy efficient home improvements.

With on-bill financing, those that have added energy efficient improvements on their homes will still pay the same electric bill, but the savings resulting from the improvements goes directly to paying off the loan. The hope is that this will encourage more people to install solar panels and other energy efficient technologies and thus, create more green jobs.

Overall, however, the numbers are troubling.

"It’s discouraging in general because back in the winter, the year-over-year [decrease] was up," Crowell said, "but now it’s down."