Long Island?s unemployment rate jumped more than 1 percent from December 2008 to January 2009 according to the latest labor statistics.

The Department of Labor released the new numbers Thursday. It lists Long Island's unemployment rate at 6.9 percent for January compared to 5.8 percent the month before. In January of 2008, the unemployment rate on Long Island was just 4.6 percent.

"How dramatically the job market deteriorated and how rapidly it deteriorated at the end of the year was really quite shocking," Department of Labor's Gary Huth says of Long Island?s job market. He says jobs were still being added on Long Island until August 2008.

Huth says for a while Long Island was faring better than the country as a whole in part because the housing market wasn't as bad as in other parts of the country. Even though big companies are hiring, Huth says, the rapid deterioration of the national economy has caught up to Long Island.

Chris Wilkerson, of Levittown, says he?s been out of work for months and had to move back in with his mother. He?s also engaged. He says he?s been working with computers for 10 years and has only received one call back from a potential employer in the two months he?s been searching.

Still, Wilkerson remains optimistic. "I know it'll get better. Just a matter of time, just gotta' stick with it,? he says.