February job gains highest since 2007
According to preliminary data released Thursday afternoon by the State Labor Department, the Long Island economy had 19,700 more jobs in February than it did the year before. Credit: AFP/Getty Images
The Long Island economy continued showing strength in February, adding 19,700 jobs compared with February 2011, the State Labor Department said Thursday.
It was the strongest monthly job growth since 2007, the year before the Island's economy tumbled into the last recession. The Island had 1,220,000 jobs in February, compared with 1,200,000 in the year-earlier period.
The private sector gained 20,800 jobs. But the struggling public sector was down by 1,100, mostly because of continuing cuts in local public education.
In January, the Island had 17,600 more jobs compared with a year earlier.
The strong job numbers suggest that despite continued weakness in the key housing market on Long Island the economy here has gotten onto a firm footing.
"We have had two very solid months of year-over-year growth," said Shital Patel, a market analyst in the state Labor Department's Hicksville office. "We are stronger than the state and on par with the nation" in private-sector growth.
However, economist Irwin Kellner, a Long Island resident and chief economist for MarketWatch.com, a financial information website, said the strong report conflicts with what he has observed.
"I would not have expected the gains to be as pervasive as they were because I have sensed . . . that things are kind of soft," he said.
All but two of the major private employment sectors on Long Island showed job gains. The biggest gainer for the second month in a row was the professional and business-services category, which includes accountants and lawyers. That category gained 9,800 jobs in February.
The losers were construction and information, which includes broadcasting and telecommunications. Construction showed the biggest sector decline -- 1,600 jobs.
Robert Basso, who owns Advantage Payroll Services in Freeport, said he has detected rising optimism among his more than 2,000 clients, which have been adding employees. The companies averaged 15 employees in 2011, compared with 14 in 2010, he said.
"They're personally feeling more confident, and that is what drives a lot of these economic decisions," Basso said.
Kellner said he hopes the latest report is an accurate reflection of the economy. Significant revisions to last year's jobs data, issued last month, showed much stronger employment than initially reported.
The Labor Department will release the Island's February unemployment rate on Tuesday. The jobless rate was 7.8 percent in January, unchanged from the year before.
