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LI Job Market Showing Blips of Life
NEWSDAY - October 27, 2009
By CARRIE MASON-DRAFFEN AND PATRICIA KITCHEN.
After an eight-month job hunt, Sara Fingerman found work in August as marketing manager at Dale Carnegie Training of Long Island in Hauppauge.
The Smithtown resident, after months of frustration, lucked out and found the job at a franchise of the communications and leadership training company. "It's a wonderful feeling to be working again," said Fingerman, 25.
Her luck may well reflect that the moribund Long Island job market is showing some signs of life. The Island's economy has lost jobs every month since September 2008, amid the worst economic downturn since the 1930s and great uncertainty. But experts say the market is taking steps - albeit baby ones - toward a recovery. One sign is local hiring, which mirrors what is happening nationally. An American Staffing Association report released Tuesday shows the demand for hiring has risen over the past 14 weeks. "Demand is picking up," said Richard Wahlquist, the group's chief executive. "There is just a high level of uncertainty about what this economic recovery is going to look like."
Gold Coast Bank in Islandia is looking to hire at least five to seven people by the end of the first quarter of 2010 - branch employees and lending staff, said Joe Perri, who has been chief executive since August. Hiring is expected to continue, as he said he plans to open three or four new branches next year.
Herb Morrow, regional director for Long Island at the staffing company Adecco in Melville, said he's seen consistent month-to-month improvements in demand for temps since June. "I feel like we really hit bottom in March and April," he said. "We have had good, solid numbers since then."
The staffing companies are considered a bellwether for the job market's health. A demand for temps usually precedes demand for permanent workers.
Morrow said that demand is beginning to creep up in such fields as sales and continues steadily in the health care industry, which hasn't lost jobs this recession.
At Lloyd Staffing in Melville, president Keith Banks said he's seen increased demand from companies to staff marketing and survey projects as businesses try to position themselves for the recovery. "That's a sign that companies conducting those surveys are trying to test the marketplace to see what will be coming on the horizon and what the [business] and consumer spend will look like," he said.
The Dale Carnegie franchise plans to hire four to five trainers, on a contract basis, for the first time in three years. Fingerman said she "lit up" after seeing its ad on Craigslist, realizing she knew about the organization. In high school she had read the founder's book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People."
Click here to view a PDF of this article.
# # # Media Contact:
Don Schatz
Don.Schatz@dalecarnegie.com
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