Job Creation in Suffolk County Still Lagging

Finally, a second classmate from my professional certification program has found employment. Twelve more to go. In these troubling times, the employment process is very hard and very slow. She, like the first, had to meet with an extraordinary amount of people within the organization, eleven in her case, in order to gain admittance. This is a woman of extraordinary savvy with almost two decades of experience in the technology realm and she more than deserved the opportunity. But, she had to commute to Manhattan to get it after working locally for the past 15 years. (The first classmate accepted an opportunity in Nassau County.)

Even though there are signs that there is some easing in the job market, job creation in Suffolk County is still lagging. Marquee companies like CA are still laying off and others like Motorola (formerly Symbol) and Nortel Networks are hanging by a thread. The rest simply have hiring freezes in place. Even the County itself has implemented a hiring freeze. But most importantly, many worthy development projects have completely stalled; the type of projects that could bring good jobs to the region, improve tourism and create affordable housing. The County needs to step up its efforts to remove the obstacles to growth, now more than ever.