Jobless Find New Gigs at Hauppauge Businesses

A hiring spree in the Hauppauge area is mirroring a nationwide uptick in private sector job creation, with many new gigs being filled from the ranks of the unemployed.

Island Pro Digital, a digital and offset printing company, has upped its staff of eight in 2010 to 12, with a 13th worker - a pressman’s assistant- set to start in two weeks.

“I get a lot of resumes when I put an ad out,” said Kurt Kubik, president of the Islandia-based company. That includes a steady stream from jobless candidates.

“I feel for them but try not to hold that into consideration. But in the back of my mind, subconsciously, maybe I pull their resumes to the top of the pile,” he said.

Payroll processing juggernaut Automatic Data Processing recently reported the private sector added 201,000 jobs in March, following the addition of 208,000 jobs in February.

At Hauppauge-based , a software firm specializing in sonar detection that picks up work through contracts with the U.S. Navy, hiring has seen a similar climb.

Towards the end of 2010, the company added three senior-level positions, said Corporate Recruiter Madalyn Lorusso.

“We hired two individuals last year, in August and July, who were laid off … from large engineering companies,” Lorusso said, adding the company plans to hire up to eight more senior software engineers before the summer.

She also said the company is flooded with resumes when they post job openings.

“I would say 40 percent are unemployed,” Lorusso said. “It used to be closer to 50.”

The recruiter said that percentage swells when considering applicants for jobs at its Pennsylvania facility, which needs less specialized staffers.

Kubik said he’s hired people who’ve changed professions in order to land job. For example, his newest pressman’s assistant used to be a mechanic.

“Mechanics can very easily transition into the print end,” he said.

At Hauppauge’s Clear Vision Optical, which designs and distributes fashion eye-ware directly to eye care businesses, the talent pool is just as filled with jobless locals. However, Senior Talent Leader Jennifer Trakhtenberg said she tends to steer clear of those applicants.

“When a candidate loses their employment, and we see it all the time … either they quickly admit defeat … or jump on it as an opportunity and start to network and either take something in a complimentary field to add credentials,” Trakhtenberg said.

“Motivation speaks to their work ethic.”

Clear Vision, which employs 140 people in Hauppauge, has hired steadily over the past year for jobs including warehouse worker, customer care associate, marketing writer, event planners and assistant administrators. The company has seven more positions to fill, too.

“I most recently extended an offer yesterday,” Trakhtenberg said.

For Kubik, it took a lot of upheaval to get his business back into a position to add jobs. While Island Pro was hit by the same economic malaise that crippled businesses nationwide, it also faced struggles unique to the printing business, where he competes against any home or office with a digital printer.

“We changed our whole biz model. It wasn’t working. Printing is absolutely horrible,” he said.

Kubik, who said he watched colleagues close up their own print shops, shifted Island Pro’s focus to printing things such as display signs and boxes for products such as cosmetics and vitamins, all while reining in his company’s spending. Eventually, business turned around, and the hiring began again.

“We’re interviewing right now for a Mac operator,” he said.