What a difference a year makes.
At this time last year, Westchester County”™s unemployment rate stood at 7.6 percent and the state Department of Labor had just announced private sector jobs in the lower Hudson Valley had contracted by 0.1 percent from July 2009 to July 2010.
Fast forward 12 months and the county”™s unemployment rate has dropped several notches to 6.7 percent. Since July 2010, private-sector industries in the Westchester-Rockland-Putnam region have added 9,000 jobs, amounting to a 1.9 percent year-over-year increase ”“ the biggest such increase seen in the region in four years.
Westchester”™s employment picture also showed monthly gains, with the July unemployment rate down slightly from June”™s 6.8 percent rate. From June to July, employment among county residents jumped by 7,100 while the number of unemployed was virtually unchanged, but the labor department noted those numbers were not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations.
Statewide, the economy added 29,400 nonfarm jobs from June to July, with 14,100 of those coming in the private sector. Those gains represented seasonally adjusted increases of 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent respectively, giving the state significantly better job growth numbers than the nation as a whole, which added jobs at a rate of just 0.1 percent over the past month.
While Westchester”™s unemployment numbers are still well above the sub-4 percent levels last seen in 2007, the year-to-year decline coupled with private sector job growth has the labor department”™s Hudson Valley analyst feeling “overly optimistic” ”“ in a good way.
“Last year around this same time we were down 0.1 percent. This is welcome news for job-seekers in this area,” said John Nelson, labor department analyst for the Hudson Valley.
Industry winners and losers
In the Westchester-Rockland-Putnam region, private-sector job growth was spread throughout several industries, with the strongest push coming from the leisure and hospitality industry, which has added 5,000 jobs in the past year.
Additionally, the private education and health services industry added 2,600 jobs since July 2010; the professional and business services sector, which comprises business-to-business companies, added 2,000 positions; and the trade, transportation and utilities sector, which includes retailers, added 1,200 positions.
Nelson said the nature of the job growth, which came across a number of diverse industries, demonstrated the increasing stability of the local economy.
“What we should really focus on is the fact that now more than ever, more industries are joining the effort,” he said. “I definitely think it”™s a positive.”
Movement at temp agencies, which is one of the aspects falling under the professional services heading, also has Nelson feeling upbeat.
“What”™s even more pronounced within that (sector) is you have an increase in hiring at temp agencies,” he said, adding that such an increase typically precedes hiring for full-time positions.
The construction and manufacturing industries, which shed 1,500 and 700 positions respectively in the past year for the three-county region including Westchester, were the lone black marks on an otherwise encouraging jobs report.
Nelson attributed job losses in those areas to the still-slow housing market, but a local economist predicted that impending infrastructure projects in the state ”“ from bridges to dams to highways ”“ could have a positive effect on those industries.
“All of these things (infrastructure improvements) have to be coming about,” said Farrokh Hormozi, professor of economics and public administration at Pace University in White Plains. “That has to be one of the areas that we are looking at, to help the construction industry particularly on the high-tech level.”
Hormozi said Westchester was in a far better position than other areas of the state and nation due to its high level of residents with college degrees.
“My expectation is that these numbers are definitely going to improve and that the unemployment rate is going to go down ”“ definitely for the New York metropolitan area it”™s going to go down,” he said.
Hotels leading the way
After having to resort to layoffs during the recession, the Crowne Plaza White Plains has added a number of employees since the start of the year in just one example of the recovery of jobs within the county”™s hospitality industry.
“We”™ve been a little more creative in how we”™re doing things,” said Sharon Walker, director of human relations for the hotel.
At the Crowne Plaza, most of the new hires have come in the front-office area and in the restaurant and bar, which have been recently renovated, a trend Walker said is reflective of the hotel”™s changing approach.
“For us, we”™ve changed our vision in what the restaurant should look like,” Walker said. “A lot of the business from (New York) city has also moved to Westchester.”
Robert Sanders, chairman of the Hospitality Resource Group Inc. of White Plains, said hotels across Westchester have been adding jobs in response to higher occupancy rates and a growing business demand for event space.
“The hotels are (now) driving occupancy and they”™re driving rates,” he said.
Pace of health care hiring ”˜ridiculous”™
Predictability has been almost entirely absent from any economic forecast of the past several months. But with Westchester”™s aging population, health care providers are counting on continued job growth, particularly in home health care and ambulatory services.
“I would think that home care is going to continue to grow for many, many years,” said Jay Conolly, vice president of human resources of Partners in Care, based in New York and an affiliate of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. Partners in Care employs some 9,000 home-health aides who cover the five boroughs of New York and Westchester and Nassau counties, an increase of more than 55 percent from the 5,800 aides it employed in 2006, Conolly said.
At the WestMed Medical Group in Purchase, human resources Director Joseph T. DiCarlo called the pace of hiring “ridiculous.”
DiCarlo said WestMed, which recently opened its new facility in Yonkers”™ Ridge Hill complex, has been hiring both on the clinical and business side of the company. “There”™s so much going on in terms of hiring, it”™s ridiculous.”
Professional services in demand
At Pragmatix Inc., an Elmsford-based managed IT consulting firm, founder and President Bill Abram said his company and others have benefitted from a trend toward outsourcing tech services.
For businesses looking to outsource IT management, “there are some big efficiencies and costs savings,” Abram said. “It does allow businesses to invest resources elsewhere and invest in their core competencies.”
He said Pragmatix has been a beneficiary of this move, with the company experiencing a 20 percent uptick in revenue over the past year and projecting a 15 percent revenue increase in 2012.
