Letter: Don't ingore LI job gains
Aceto Corp. headquarters in Port Washington. On Dec. 12, 2013, Aceto said it had purchased Inter'actifs, a French seller of ingredients used in cosmetics and other personal care products, for an undisclosed price. (Oct. 21, 2011) Credit: Barry Sloan
If Newsday continues to accentuate the negative over the positive in the job market, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Case in point is the Oct. 22 edition, which highlighted on Page A6 the loss of 25 jobs from IRX Therapeutics to Florida ["More jobs leaving LI," News] while burying on Page A17 the good news that 80 jobs at a chemical supplier were retained thanks to government-sponsored incentives programs ["Grant for chem firm," Business].
The headline, "More jobs leaving LI" played to the false narrative that jobs were lost when Arrow Electronics announced recently that it would relocate its headquarters to Colorado.
These articles should also include the fact that in the last decade, more than 10,000 jobs were brought to Long Island or added here because of the aggressive, proactive approach that county and state economic development officers have employed, through our industrial development agencies and the Empire State Development incentives.
Certainly, challenges remain, given the high tax and electric rates, and relatively high housing costs. But there are numerous success stories to tout, such as the 2,000 jobs at Canon and the 400 jobs at Leviton Corp.
Newsday shouldn't ignore the bad news, but it should not forget to accentuate the success stories either.
Yves R. Michel, Hauppauge
Editor's note: The writer is commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Workforce Housing.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
