Community Corner
Suffolk Notebook: Unemployment Rises in October
In other news, Suffolk County P.D. took over patrols of the Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway on Tuesday night.
Suffolk County's unemployment rate in October rose year-over-year, according to the State Department of Labor, from 7 to 7.3 percent.
According to the DOL, Suffolk saw 3,300 more individuals in the county file for unemployment last month than October 2011 – up to 57,500. However, numbers show, the county's unemployment rate dropped month-over-month, down slightly from 7.5 percent unemployed in September.
Statewide, unemployment jumped from 8 to 8.2 percent, while New York City stayed flat at 9.2 percent.
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Within Suffolk County, Smithtown reported the lowest unemployment rate at 6.3 percent, while Babylon Town reported the highest with an 8.3 percent jobless rate.
October 2012 Labor Force Data Labor Force Employed Unemployed Unemployment Rate (%) Babylon Town 111,600 102,300 9,300 8.3 Brookhaven Town 260,400 241,400 19,000 7.3 Huntington Town 107,200 100,400 6,700 6.3 Islip Town 178,500 164,700 13,800 7.7 Riverhead Town 16,600 15,300 1,200 7.3 Smithtown Town 61,200 57,300 3,900 6.3 Southampton Town 29,200 27,300 2,000 6.7 Suffolk County 788,000 730,600 57,500 7.3 Nassau-Suffolk 1,480,600 1,374,600 106,000 7.2 New York City 3,988,900 3,622,200 366,700 9.2 New York State 9,620,200 8,822,600 797,600 8.3County P.D. Takes Back L.I.E., Sunrise Highway Patrols
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Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco announced this week that Suffolk County Police Department's Highway Patrol Bureau was taking back patrols of the Long Island Expressway and the Sunrise Highway from County Deputy Sheriffs.
The switch occurred at 10 p.m. on Tuesday.
County officials and the deputy sheriff's union remain in talks over an agreement, and said they would work together to keep the roads safe. Though union president Anthony Prudenti told Newsday he "totally disagreed" with the decision to remove sheriffs from the roadways.
According to Newsday, former County Exec Steve Levy placed the deputy sheriffs on the roads during his tenure and guaranteed they would continue to patrol the roads through 2017.
"We will work together to ensure an orderly transition," Bellone said in a statement.
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