In what turned out to be a precursor of more good news for the Westchester employment picture, Â OrthoNet Holdings Inc. announced Sept. 15 it would keep its headquarters in White Plains and planned to add 155 workers.
Despite discouraging national jobs data, unemployment continued to decline in Westchester County, dropping to 6.5 percent in August from 6.7 percent in July and from 7.1 percent a year ago.
In New York state, the unemployment rate held steady at 8 percent from July to August, and was down from 8.4 percent in Aug. 2010.
The OrthoNet announcement, including plans by the orthopedic services company to invest $4.5 million in the expansion of its headquarters, was hailed by numerous political figures, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.
“Westchester has been the home of our company since its founding and for the last 16 years, and we continue to be very impressed with the qualifications of the local workforce,” said Roger Shedlin, CEO of OrthoNet.
Financial incentives, including up to $3 million in Excelsior tax credits from Empire State Development, played a major role in keeping OrthoNet ”“ which had reportedly been considering a move to Connecticut ”“ at its White Plains location.
In Westchester, the marked drop in the unemployment rate may have been affected by what was a significant decline in the civilian labor force, both for the state as a whole and for the lower Hudson Valley region that comprises Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties.
Over the past year, the state”™s labor force fell by 113,600 and the three counties”™ collective labor force fell by 8,300, declines that Department of Labor analyst John Nelson said could be attributed either to movement out of the region or to discouraged job-seekers who have given up on finding employment.
Nonetheless, Nelson remained upbeat about the private-sector growth.
“What I want to focus on more is that the private-sector job count is improving,” he said. “What”™s even more significant is the fact that it”™s not isolated growth. You”™re looking at several industries that are contributing to this nice turnaround.”
Leading the charge were the leisure and hospitality and the educational and health services sectors, which posted year-over-year growth of 8.7 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively, for the three-county region including Westchester.
Overall, private-sector jobs grew by 1 percent over the past year, adding a total of 4,700 jobs in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland, while total nonfarm jobs expanded by 0.5 percent, adding 2,500 jobs in the region.
Holding back job growth were the construction, manufacturing and information-providing industries, in addition to government employers, which all posted year-to-year declines for the lower Hudson Valley region.
The loss of 1,800 jobs in the information sector is likely the result of the Verizon strike from earlier in August, Nelson said. “Most likely, we”™ll look at the data next month and see something a little softer, if any decline at all. Most of it was attributed to the Verizon workers that were on strike.”
In the past year, the construction industry lost 2,100 jobs in the lower Hudson Valley region ”“ good for a 6.9 percent drop ”“ and manufacturing lost 600 jobs, amounting to a 2.3 percent drop. Additionally, 2,200 government jobs were lost, with the majority of those coming in the local government sector.
While Westchester and the lower Hudson Valley as a whole showed impressive job gains in August, financial experts said the uncertainty at the federal government level was continuing to weigh heavily on business owners.
“To me, what”™s occurring is an incredible lack of clarity for most business owners,” said Anthony Domino, managing principal of Associated Benefit Consultants, an employee benefit firm in Rye Brook. He said that in a meeting with two U.S. senators last week, including Charles Schumer, he expressed his view that businesses are continuing to hold onto savings as a result of the uncertain economy and unstable political climate.
“I think the basic root cause behind all this is the uncertainty with where our government is headed with its tax policy,” Domino said, jokingly comparing the current stalemate between Democrats and Republicans with the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
“I really think that there is a huge philosophical battle going on in this country right now over the size and role of government,” he said. “My hope is that there is far more going on behind the scenes than the public seems to be seeing.”
The new proposals unveiled over the past two weeks by President Obama may not necessarily help small-business owners, said Fely Cieza, a financial adviser with Strategies for Wealth in Rye Brook.
“A large percentage of our clients ”¦ are small-business owners,” Cieza said in an email. “The proposed American Jobs Act (AJA) would be a double whammy for many of them, professionally and personally.”
She said that because the proposed payroll tax reductions would only be good until the end of 2012, businesses could be forced to lay off employees upon the expiration of the tax break after investing time and money in training them.
Additionally, she said that many of those small business owners fall into the category of earning more than $200,000 individually, or more than $250,000 as a family, which would result in higher taxes if the proposed tax hikes pass.
