Will LI job report show more growth?

Tomorrow, the State Labor Department will issue its September employment numbers for Long Island.

What the numbers will show is anybody’s guess but if they follow the pattern of the past five months, the data will show continued growth, in other words, that employers adding jobs outnumbered those that cut.

In August, the Island had 11,300 more jobs than it had in August 2009. While the news was welcomed, it’s still a bleak reminder that the region has a long way to go to repair the damage of the recession. In the late 1990s, for example, year-to-year comparisons routinely showed increases of more than 30,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate, now at 7 percent, compares with 2.8 percent in December, 1999, the lowest of that year and significantly below 4 percent, which is considered full employment. 

See how the Island's jobless rate compares with others around the state.  In photo above, job hunter's line up at a career fair Oct. 6 at Hofstra's Mack Sports Complex.