Long Island shows first job growth in 22 months

For the first time in nearly two years, Long Island had more jobs - 6,700 of them - than it did a year earlier, the state's Labor Department said.

The strong growth, ending 22 consecutive months of year-over-year job losses on Long Island, helped cut the unemployment rate to 6.6 percent from 7.2 percent in March. In February the number was 7.9 percent, an 18-year high.

"What's so surprising is that we could go so dramatically within a four-month period of time from being down 33,000 jobs to up 6,700 jobs," said Gary Huth, the Labor Department's principal economist for Long Island. "It's pretty striking."

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For several months, some local economists had said the recent steady decline in private sector job losses meant the market was poised for a net increase in jobs.

The leisure and hospitality sector was the biggest engine of growth in the April report, adding 5,500 jobs, the most of any sector. Some economists cautioned that these additions were in lower-paying jobs and that state budget woes could result in job losses.

R. Moke McGowan, president of the Long Island Convention & Visitors Bureau, said that he saw an uptick in business activity and tourism in the first quarter in part because four hotels with a total of 500 rooms opened and more will be opening. That has also meant more hiring.

And reduced rates are drawing people from New York City who want to vacation closer to home. "Almost across the board all lodging has reduced rates," McGowan said."That has allowed folks who wanted to get away to book a room in a three-, four-star hotel at reasonable rates."

The educational and health-services category, which has added jobs throughout the recession, added the second-highest number of jobs in the 12 months ended in April - 5,100 - while trade, transportation and utilities, which includes retail stores, added 3,300 jobs.

Pearl Kamer, chief economist for the Long Island Association, said she expects the leisure and hospitality sector to show even better numbers next month because recent hiring wasn't included in the April numbers. She also expects job growth to continue in other healthy sectors.

Manufacturing, which has lost jobs consistently, lost the most jobs - 3,900 - in the April-to-April comparison. Long Island now has 1.021 million private sector jobs, compared with 1.014 million in April 2009.

New York City's unemployment rate dipped to 9.8 percent in April from 9.9 percent in March.

The last time the Island had overall job growth was in May 2008, a month before the recession started here.

As if almost on cue, the Long Island economy expanded six months after the national economy began adding jobs in November. The two economies also entered the recession six months apart. The nation's began in December 2007 and Long Island followed suit the following year.

Long Island typically enters a recession after the nation and comes out later.

As positive as the job reports is, Kamer worries about the growing number of lower-wage jobs being added, while higher-wage jobs are still being lost. Leisure and hospitality, which includes restaurants, tends to have the lower-paying jobs. Categories with higher-paying jobs, such as manufacturing, and business and professional services, continue to lose jobs. "I am still concerned that the job losses are still occurring in the higher-paying industries and the job gains have been confined to lower-paying industries," she said.

In addition, Huth said that the economy still faced some uncertainties, such as local and state government deficits, which could lead to more layoffs.

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Long Island shows first job growth in 22 months