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Politics & Government

Southampton Unemployment Holds Flat

Jobless rate for October same as year earlier

Town of Southampton unemployment held flat at 6.6 percent in October, compared to the same month one year ago, the state Department of Labor announced Thursday, though it climbed compared to September 2010's jobless rate of 6 percent.

Department of Labor Long Island economist Gary Huth attributed the month-to-month rise to the seasonal nature of the East End economy.

"As the colder months go forward, the East End tourism-related jobs will have a lot more fluctuation in unemployment rates," Huth said.

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Of a civilian labor force of 31,387 in Southampton, 2,073 were unemployed in October 2010, a rate of 6.6 percent, the labor department report states.

Southampton is faring better than the county as a whole, which faces 7.0 percent unemployment. That is down from 7.2 percent in October 2009. The statewide unemployment rate fell to 8.0 percent, down from 8.7 percent a year earlier.

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"There are 10,900 more jobs on Long Island than there were in October 2009," Huth pointed out. "We are growing at a rate of 1.1 percent a year. It's not gangbusters, certainly, but it's significantly better than it was earlier."

Huth said that while the overall report is positive, and there is a degree of certainty that recovery is viable, the speed of recovery is slower than desired.

"Usually there is some increased hiring in retail trade, though this month it's unchanged," he said. There was, however, a big jump in wholesale trade, he added.

"You have to keep in mind that this is the official unemployment rate," said Dr. Pearl Kamer, chief economist for the Long Island Association. "There is another unemployment rate that includes people who are working part time involuntarily because they can't find a full time job, and there are the so-called discouraged workers who stopped looking for work because they couldn't find a job."

"If you include those groups, the unemployment rate is actually higher," Kamer said.

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