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Business & Tech

October Unemployment Slides in Riverhead

Though the local jobless rates are lower than the county, state and the country as a whole.

The Town of Riverhead's unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent in October, compared to 6.9 percent in October 2009, the state's Department of Labor said Thursday. Though the jobless rate inched up from September's 6.5 percent.

The October 2010 workforce is listed as 17,200 people, with 1,200 unemployed.

For Suffolk County, unemployment was 7 percent in October, down from 7.2 percent in the same month last year. Long Island as a whole clocked a 6.9 percent jobless rate, compared to 7.1 percent in October 2009. New York state's jobless rate was 8 percent both months.

The current unemployment rate for the country is 9.6 percent.

"Long Island as a whole did not take quite as sharp a downturn as the rest of the country," said Gary Huth, labor analyst for the DOL."We were saved by not having certain industries that were very affected. For instance, we don't have major auto plants that laid off workers. And even though a lot of people think the island has been overbuilt, there was nothing like the degree of overbuilding and real estate speculation that went on in some other areas of the country."

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Huth added, "There are 10,900 more jobs on Long Island than there were in October 2009. We are growing at a rate of 1.1 percent a year."

But despite the recovery in unemployment, empty storefronts along Riverhead's Main Street still lie in wait.

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"We have a lot of big employers in Riverhead: Tanger, Atlantis, the businesses on Route 58. What has been hurt are the mom and pop stores that used to be on Main Street," said Sue Gentile-Hackett, executive director of the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce.

Though Chamber President Bob Lanieri, who is director of food services at Atlantis Marine World, calls the town's economical outlook better than in recent months.

", we've got that hotel going up by Atlantis, the Suffolk Theater [which has been closed since the late 1970s] should be open by next spring, and this winter there is going to be a skating rink by the parking lot in back of Main Street, by the river."

Lanieri, who has been with Atlantis Marine World since it opened about a decade ago, said the aquarium has continued to be a Main Street draw even during this recession.

"It's always packed," he said.

As for the vacancies on Main Street, Gentile-Hackett thinks artists could use the empty storefronts as studios and exhibition spaces. "I saw it happen in Portland, Maine. It happened in SoHo in New York City. Riverhead could be a great place for business and the arts."

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