Long Island Jobs Report: There Are None

Today, Newsday reported data released from the New York Department of Labor:

"Long Island lost 21,600 private-sector jobs in the 12-month period ended in December, compared with a year ago, marking the weakest local job market in 16 years."

This I know because I am one of those people. Out of my circle of co-workers who were laid off, it appears that only one has found a job thus far and it requires a daily commute from Suffolk County to NYC. I know that the job outlook is bleak because I face it everyday; each job search for positions on the Island yields a shorter list of opportunities. Positions that have aging posting dates are generally dead requisitions that haven't been pulled by the job sites.

Now the untouchable companies like Microsoft are announcing layoffs, 5000 positions will be cut over the next 18 months, says Microsoft. However, it was under-reported that 1400 of those positions were cut today. As more and more companies join the list, we just watch the bleeding.

The Newsday article went on to describe the current unemployment rate of 5.8% on Long Island as the highest in 14 years. It was 5.2% as recently as November of 2008 and 3.8% in December 2007. The shocking economic fall of 2008 may have been minimized and delayed by the trillions injected into corporate institutions by the government and its entities and yet these bailouts were accompanied by unprecedented job losses, a continued credit squeeze and lack and capital. It is difficult to comprehend how much collateral damage that is still out there.

We still want to believe that things are going to get better but no amount of Presidential honeymoon can detract me from the realities. Now the government is poised to throw another 1 trillion at the "economic problem" except for this time it is supposed to create jobs. Now many are complaining that this is not nearly enough money.

We have been told to completely ignore the spiraling national debt; it is better to increase it by trillions so that we all survive yet I have not heard any other solutions. Maybe we lived too high on the hog too long; maybe we all cannot survive. We still need the unvarnished truth. Maybe we'll get it soon. Like they say, the truth shall set us free.