Leisure, hospitality sectors lead April's LI job growth

Bookings are up at the Southampton Inn and so is hiring, owner Dede Gotthelf said.

She estimates that demand for rooms is up 12 percent from a year ago. And she has felt confident enough about business to add three permanent employees in the past month - in accounting, marketing and housekeeping management - taking her permanent staff to about 20.

The leisure and hospitality sector of the economy, which includes the Southampton Inn with its 90 guest rooms, led the way in job growth on Long Island last month, scoring 5,500 more jobs than the sector had in April 2009. Gotthelf usually adds about 50 to 60 seasonal workers and is halfway through that number as the inn's restaurant gets ready to open next week for the season. But she decided to add the permanent employees when business started looking up in April after a "rough" six months.

"As the weather started getting nice, suddenly in April, we have been looking at a string of sold-out days," she said.

Wall Street firms that sat out last year are back booking for meetings, for golf tournaments and for junior-associates training, Gotthelf said.

"The financial sector is one of our biggest customers," said Gotthelf, a former banker who has owned the inn since 1998.

Bookings are also up because of more weddings, family parties and extended stays by people who want to vacation closer to home.

And demand is up 33 percent from foreign tourists who come to Long Island after vacationing in New York City, including Italians, Germans and South Americans, she said.

At a time when many businesses are holding back on capital investments, Gotthelf has put in a new 50-foot heated pool, a new patio area and had landscaping work done.

"I felt that the pulse of the world was to stay close to home," Gotthelf said. "And we wanted to be prepared for it."

But she added a note of caution, "We'll see whether it was the right decision."