Local Businesses Slowly Bouncing Back on Long Island

Small businesses on Long Island continue to slowly bounce back some four years after the recession ended in June 2009.

That’s according to James Brown, regional principal economist with the state’s Department of Labor. Brown addressed nearly 80 North Shore business leaders at a breakfast for small business owners in Port Washington on Friday.

Since 2009, Brown said, Long Island has been adding jobs and seeing sales increase.

The Island has added 28,500 in the last year, up 2.7 percent according to the latest Labor Department reports. By comparison, New York saw a 1.4 percent private sector growth, while the nation saw 2 percent growth.

Sectors adding jobs include professional and business services; trade, transportation and utility; leisure and hospitality; educational and health services; and construction.

Technology has proven to be a boost for the leisure and hospitality sector, Brown said Friday, noting that these businesses were able to better market themselves online. “They were more reactive, and could keep the enterprise going,” he said.

Friday’s breakfast was hosted by the Town of North Hempstead Business & Tourism Development Corporation and held at The Amsterdam at Harborside in Port Washington.