30,000 on LI find jobs after visiting state-run career centers

More than 30,000 Long Islanders who used the services of state-sponsored career centers got jobs in 2012, the state Labor Department announced Tuesday.

In Suffolk, 16,646 job seekers who used the six centers on Long Island later obtained a job. In Nassau, 13,435 found work. Most of the sites are One-Stop Career Centers.

The news comes amid a stubbornly high unemployment rate on Long Island. The rate rose to 7.1 percent in December, from 6.8 percent the same month in 2011, the Labor Department said last week. The Island had 104,900 unemployed workers in December, up from 99,400 a year earlier.

Statewide, 250,000 job hunters who frequented government-run employment-service centers found work last year, accounting for a quarter of the one million nationwide who found work after visiting similar sites, the announcement said.