Long Island job growth inches ahead, report shows

Long Island’s job engine inched forward in November, according to state data released Thursday.

The region added 14,000 jobs, a 1.1 percent increase over the number of jobs a year earlier. That gain was in line with a 1.1 percent rise in New York State, but lagged the 1.6 percent gain in the nation overall.

“It’s a pretty stable picture,” said James Brown, labor-market analyst in the department’s Brooklyn office.

The gain of 14,000 jobs reversed a streak of declining year-over-year gains going back to July. In October, Long Island added 11,700 more jobs than the 2015 period.

Brown said losses in construction employment in November held back the region’s jobs growth. Construction jobs typically fall in November, he said, but the 2,600 jobs lost — the fourth consecutive monthly decline — was larger than average.

John A. Rizzo, chief economist for the Long Island Association, the region’s largest trade group, said that weakness in construction jobs also is “a negative sign for the real estate sector going forward,” especially when coupled with rising interest rates.

Manufacturing continued its long decline, shedding 1,200 jobs in November from a year earlier. More than 70,000 manufacturing jobs remain, Brown said, but a decade ago the region had more than 100,000 jobs.

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Offsetting losses in construction were gains in education and health services, and in professional and business services, which includes lawyers and accountants, Brown said. Education and health services gained 10,600 jobs, while business services added 2,000.

While Long Island’s private-sector jobs grew by 1.3 percent in November from a year earlier, government-sector jobs fell 0.2 percent year-over-year. State and local government jobs held steady but federal government jobs declined 1.9 percent.

The state focuses on year over year job changes because the data aren’t adjusted for seasonal swings in employment.

Rizzo said that with the region’s unemployment rate sitting near 4 percent, employers will be finding it difficult to corral good job candidates. “It’s more and more difficult to find the right matches,” he said. “Going forward, we’ll probably see more [growth] on the wage side than the jobs side.”

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The state is scheduled to release unemployment numbers on Tuesday.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.