Diner's 'Help Wanted' sign of ... hope?

If Long Island has a business diner, it is the Sweet Hollow, on Route 110 in the heart of Melville. Business executives pack the parking lot for breakfasts, brunches and lunches.

Other than eggs, toast and coffee, business people inhale a little thing called hope. So the Sweet Hollow decided to provide some, putting up several "Help Wanted" signs in the windows.

Awhile ago, the diner needed help and hired a waitress and a dishwasher. But the signs remain.

"People felt it was nice," said a diner manager who identified himself only as Chris. Customers told him, Chris said, that the signs made them feel that the economy is improving, even though the official unemployment numbers say otherwise.

In May the Island's unemployment rate rose to 7.4 percent, from 6.7 percent a year earlier, according to the state Labor Department.

Some feel the sign is unfair to unemployed people, leading them to believe jobs exist when they don't. The diner owners say all applicants will still be considered for positions, and a need may pop up unexpectedly.

On his way out of the diner on a searingly hot Friday morning, Joe Caputo of Elmont took a look at one of the signs and agreed it did make him feel good. "There's a job there for someone," Caputo said.

Jennifer Boudin and her 11-year-old son, Jesse, were eating pancakes, bonding a day before Jesse goes off to a Pennsylvania camp for most of the summer. Boudin said she loves the diner but the sign did not particularly brighten her day.

It suggested, she said, "people are quitting."

But regular patron Ernie Canadeo, president of advertising firm EGC Group, can see the diner from the window of his office in Melville.

"There's an assumption people aren't hiring," said Canadeo, who employs 40 people. His firm, he said, has just hired four more, and a fifth has been offered a job as a traffic manager.

The Help Wanted sign is good, Canadeo said. "It's better than seeing a 'for rent' or 'going out of business' sign," he said.