Queens Gets On The Job:
Unemployment Down,
Search For Employees Harder

By CYNTHIA RAMSARAN & RICHARD FASANELLA

An estimated 26,000 more Queens people have jobs this year than last year as, for the tenth year in a row, unemployment dropped and the challenge for local businesses to find employees continued to escalate.

The borough’s unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in June 2000 (compared to 5.8 percent in June 1999), according to Michael Josephson, a location manager for the Jamaica Labor Dept. The Dept. of Labor’s statistics office calculates the rate through a formula that, "matches up the total residents, total people working and total people collecting unemployment," said Josephson. "The formula has been the closest and the most efficient way to calculate the unemployment rate."

He added that the decline is part of the city’s overall economic improvement, adding that in Queens, "There are more opportunites for employment, lots of computer and health care positions because the economy has improved."

As for the future, Josephson added that he expects the Queens trend toward employment to continue. "The figure has been dropping consistently.I won’t be surprised if it comes down one more point," Josephson said.

Overall, the City of New York has experienced a .7 percent decrease in unemployment from May 1999 - May 2000.

The Queens Overall Economic Development Corporation’s Executive Director Marie Nahikian, believes Queens’ winning formula in job-filling has been the diversity of the job market.

Nahikian said the trend is simple to explain. "The low rate is due to the fact that there are more jobs available and the jobs that are available are diverse. The construction industry has been a major growth, and that’s not because of the need for construction. It’s because more companies are hiring contractors in Queens," Nahikian said. The Queens Overall Economic Development Corporation is a non-profit organization working to increase economic opportunity for Queens.

Seth Bornstein, the director of economic development for Borough President Claire Shulman, agrees, "The economy nationwide is stable. In a county which is so incredibly diverse, our labor force has become even more diverse and we have more people with various skills to fill the positions."

For those still searching for or studying for a job, the Queens County Overall Economic Development Corporation (QCOEDC) reports that the construction industry showed the greatest growth in the borough between 1993-99. Construction made up almost one-fourth of the borough’s total employment increase. Next on the growing Queens market list are health services, air transportation, and manufacturing. The "health services" category includes home health care services, hospitals and nursing and personal care facilities, all of which account for nearly 40 percent of all payroll in Queens, according to QCOEDC.

Theodore Savvakis, from A Plus Employment Agency, in Long Island City, said that even though the unemployment numbers are down, his employment agency is still busy, indicating that the generation just reaching career age is also turning out for local work.

"We have a lot of people come in, mostly male and usually they are young," said Savvakis. "They are in their 20’s or 30’s."

An assistant at Access Health Professions employment agency, added that "actually there has been more people coming to our agency in the past five years," indicating a greater use of agency aid to tap in to the shrinking pool of open jobs.

The industries that are still searching for employees, according Lorne Dupree of Champion Personnel LTD in Forest Hills, are the ones that require more skilled workers.

"We are getting a lot more job orders but not that many qualified people," said Dupree. "Most qualified workers have jobs already and the ones with no skills do not qualify for the empty positions."

Jim Sugrue of Sugrue Contracting Corp. agreed, saying that the drop in unemployment has caused most of their jobs to take longer to fill as well. "Working durations are getting extended because when someone wants extra workers on a job it is not easy to get them," said Sugrue.

Sugrue has also found that the shortage of workers has created a problem with manufacturing companies he deals with, causing it to take longer for parts and materials to get to sites.

"This problem is everywhere," said the owner of Bon Appetit deli in Rockaway Beach. "From every mom and pop store to the future 500 businesses . . . it’s hard to find employees." Rusell Sarder, owner of Net Com Information Technology, a Long Island City based company, expressed his need for workers. "There is always a labor shortage in the technical field," said Sarder. "It’s hard to find qualified people."

But Sarder revealed his secret to the solution of his labor shortage problem. "We have a corporate training program," said Sarder. "By having a training program, we always have access to information needed to train people on the job."

As for the City’s Summer Youth-Program which is designed to offer training in skilled positions and in the work atmosphere, a spokesperson told the Tribune that a story that recently appeared in a city daily did not give the right picture of what was happening in Queens or around the city.

The spokesperson for City Employment Commissioner Antonio Pagan said that the story, which claimed that callers were turned away even though thousands of jobs remained, was laden with inaccuracies.

Last week, a local daily newspaper reported that Commissioner Pagan had acknowledged there was a problem with the agency’s hotline and that the public was receiving some wrong information about the program.

However, May Chin, a spokesperson for the Commissioner, told the Tribune that those reports were inaccurate.

Concerns were raised that employees answering the hotline were incorrectly telling callers that the deadline for the program had pased on June 26. However, Chin confirmed that the deadline for applications was in fact June 26 and contends that no erroneous information had been given out by the hotline.

"That’s all misinformation," Chin said. "As in every year there is a limited application period. This year applications were accepted from May 1 until June 26."

Chin said that although the application period had closed, the program was still enrolling some youths to fill available positions, even though the program ends on August 17.

"The people that are being placed in positions now are being taken off of our waiting list," Chin said. "They are being used to fill slots that have recently opened up because other people have dropped out of the program."

Chin added that even though the jobs began on July 3, it is possible that people may still be getting hired. It all depends on whether or not a slot becomes vacant, she said.

Although published reports had the number of unfilled jobs in the "thousands," Chin was unable to confirm how many jobs the City was offering this year through its summer youth employment program.

"We’re still sorting through this information," was the only response Chin could offer, saying that she also did not know how many applications her agency had received — despite the fact that the City stopped accepting applications nearly six weeks ago.

"We want to make sure that as many young people as possible get jobs this summer," Chin said. "However, data figures are not available until the end of the program because the numbers change on a daily basis."

Despite repeated requests by the Tribune to interview Pagan, Chin said that the Commissioner was unavailable to comment on the discrepancies.