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NY job growth peppy, LI flat BY RANDI F. MARSHALLNewsday Long Island March 9, 2006 It was a relatively lackluster 2005 - and 2006 may not be a significantly different story - for Long Island job growth. Long Island posted far more modest job growth than initially thought in 2005, adding just 6,700 jobs - a 0.5 percent increase from 2004, according to revisions released yesterday by the state Department of Labor. That's one-third fewer jobs than experts thought the Island had gained based on initial data. New York City employers, meanwhile, told a different tale. They added 49,100 jobs in 2005 according to the revisions, a 1.4 percent gain from 2004. That's a significant improvement from the initial data, which showed a 1 percent gain, or 34,600 jobs. "The industries in New York City are oriented to growth, whereas our industry mix ... is not oriented to the most rapidly growing industries," said Pearl Kamer, the Long Island Association's chief economist. The picture across the region was somewhat brighter in January, thanks in part to good weather. For the 12 months ended in January, Long Island employers added 10,800 jobs to their payrolls, a 0.9 percent gain, the Labor Department said. The Island's unemployment rate stood at 4.2 percent in January, compared with December's 3.9 percent. New York City saw a gain of 52,800 jobs, or 1.5 percent, in the 12 months ending in January - the highest 12-month increase in five years. Its unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent in January, down from 5.8 percent in December. "We are showing solid growth," said state Department of Labor analyst James Brown in Manhattan, who pointed to strong gains in professional services and financial activities. "It's just more solid than we thought." On the Island, employers continue to say they're optimistic - but they're not showing it in their hiring plans. A survey by Suffolk County's Department of Labor released recently showed that nearly 80 percent of employers didn't plan to hire in 2005 - and, it seems anecdotally, that trend has extended into this year. Executives point to continuing global concerns, including the Iraq War and energy costs, and issues closer to home, such as rising benefits costs and a housing market slowdown. "Everybody is more cautious," said Andrew Barwicki, investor relations vice president for Nu Horizons Electronics Corp., a Melville electronics component distributor. Nu Horizons, with 650 employees, isn't planning to add jobs this year, Barwicki said. "We basically want to leverage everything we have today - our people, our software and our warehouses, and increase our revenue and profit," he added. Perhaps that's the toughest part of today's job market to explain. Companies across the region are posting strong revenue and profit gains and, even then, aren't adding people. "Even as you're being competitive, and even as your business is doing well, it's because of that competitive nature of the business that you're holding down the actual job growth numbers," said Gary Huth, the state's labor market analyst in Hicksville. Besides manufacturing, the Island's weak spots were leisure and hospitality, which stayed flat in 2005, and financial activities, which lost banking and insurance jobs. At Americana Mortgage Group in Manhasset, the staff has declined from 30 people a year and a half ago to 20 today, said president Bob Moulton. Others now work shorter weeks. Yet Moulton said he is hiring sales representatives, on commission, to add business. That dichotomy may indicate somewhat of a mismatch between available jobs and what job seekers want. "Overall, there isn't that much development of new jobs that are high-paying jobs that mean anything to the economy," said Scott Passesser, the president of the LIA's Staffing and Re-employment Services. That's not the case in New York City, where the job seeker may now be in charge, even for high-wage sectors such as financial activities, which roared back in the last 12 months, adding 11,600 jobs. "Candidates I might not have placed two years ago are getting placed because firms need bodies," said Damon Roth, Spherion Staffing's professional services director in Manhattan. "If you have somewhat of an intelligence and a decent personality, you can get jobs that were not available to you in years past."
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