Letters to editor on future of LI work, business

August 26, 2007

Last week we asked for your views on the future of work and business on Long Island. Here is a sample of the responses.

While I agree that affordable housing is needed to enable the young to stay on Long Island, we can do a better job at providing reasons for older workers to remain in the workforce in a variety of capacities, whether full-time or part-time, as consultants or seasonal workers.

I'm not talking just about jobs in Home Depot and CVS, but in executive and middle-management capacities. A significant percent of baby boomers plan to work into the traditional retirement years, and it is important to our economy to keep these people in the workforce.

If we really understand the seriousness of our labor needs, we will create policies and programs that enable boomers to stay in the workforce without losing their retirement benefits and will encourage them to gain new skills. And we will pay them better salaries and benefits that are commensurate with their importance in our economy.

Paul Arfin Hauppauge

I have read articles from various sources indicating that there is a severe shortage of CPAs and other professionals on Long Island and New York City. If this is the case, why can't I get a job here, with 30 years of experience?

A Newsday editorial said, "In the coming years ... Long Island will have far more unfilled jobs than workers available to fill them." This is because employers are looking to hire young people in their 20s and 30s, who make lower salaries, in the $40,000 to $60,000 range. But the young people are leaving the area because they can't live on their own here with those salaries. This is a never-ending vicious cycle.

Long Island is going to be losing a lot more people in their 50s, as well as recent college graduates in their 20s, in the next couple of years because so many jobs are either being moved overseas (India, China, Philippines, Thailand, etc.) or, in the case of my target industry (banks/financial service firms), moving out of this area.

Robert Hoppe Hicksville

I work as a graphic artist-production artist for a printing company, perhaps a good example of the working class on Long Island. I have been with the company over eight years and make a good salary compared with average salaries in the area.

On paper, I can afford a first-time-home-buyer house in Suffolk County, with a two-income household. But with just enough salary to qualify for this starter home, what kind of quality of life can I look forward to?

Can we really enjoy our new homes while looking over our shoulder every week at rising property taxes, insurance, utilities, home repairs and the fact that everything costs more and more, not to mention layoffs?

How can we attract more highly skilled workers to Long Island?

How about paying more!

Mark Dlhopolsky Bohemia