Long Island’s job growth slows in February, report shows
Lauren Gallo of Smithtown, left, started work this week as a new paralegal at Genser Dubow Genser & Cona in Melville. Managing partner Jennifer Cona, right, says the law firm is "busier than ever." Credit: Chris Ware
Long Island’s job growth has slowed, state Labor Department data released Thursday show.
The local economy had 15,300 more jobs in February than in February 2015. That gain is significantly below January’s pace, when the year-over-year comparison showed the local economy growing at an annual rate of 18,700 jobs.
“There is definitely a slowdown in job growth,” said Shital Patel, labor-market analyst in the department’s Hicksville office.
The slowing may reflect that the Island is moving closer to full employment because of steady job gains, said John A. Rizzo, chief economist for the Long Island Association. Full employment is classically defined as an unemployment rate below 4 percent. The Island’s January rate was 4.5 percent. The February jobless rate will be released on Tuesday.
The Island’s “gains in employment may be lower simply because relatively more jobs have already been filled,” Rizzo said.
In the latest report, the sectors most noted for lower wages led employment growth. The private-education and health-services sector expanded the most, with 7,700 more jobs, mostly on the strength of health care. The leisure and hospitality sector came in second, with 3,900 more jobs.
Some of the Island’s highest-paying sectors also expanded. In fact the government sector had the third-largest increase in jobs — 3,700. Professional and business services came in fourth, with 3,200 more jobs.
By contrast, financial activities, the Island’s top-wage payer, eked out just 500 more jobs year over year.
Lauren Gallo, a Smithtown resident, found work in the professional and business-services sector at Genser Dubow Genser & Cona, an elder-law and estate-planning law firm in Melville. Gallo, 27, began working there on Monday as a paralegal. Before that she worked at a Commack law firm for almost two years but left in November to study for the bar exam, which she took in February. She is awaiting the results.
After taking the exam she started looking for work again. She contacted someone she knew at Genser Dubow so she could drop by for information on elder law. She didn’t even know if the firm had a job opening. She wound up getting hired.
“Send your application everywhere and to places that don’t even have job postings up,” she said in offering advice to job seekers.
Jennifer Cona, the firm’s managing partner, who hired Gallo, said the business plans more hiring.
“We’re busier than ever,” she said. “With the aging population, more people need our services.”
The biggest job declines in the February report occurred in the trade, transportation and utilities sector, which lost 4,800 jobs compared with a year earlier, mostly because of retail cutbacks.
Patel said the retail sector typically sheds jobs in February but “we just had a larger number than normal.”
She attributed some of the declines to jobs lost because of A&P’s bankruptcy and the closing of its Pathmark and Waldbaum’s stores here.
All told the Island had 1.28 million jobs in February, compared with 1.26 million the year before.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
