Long Island is experiencing a building boom ranging from transit-oriented development to home renovations, according to a new report on significant industries by the New York State Department of Labor.
Certain manufacturing sectors also are growing, bucking a trend and what some might see as conventional but, in this case, incorrect wisdom.
The 23-page report, which focused on 13 “significant industries” based on employment and other factors, said “construction activity is booming on Long Island” including dozens of transit-oriented mixed-use developments, multi-family housing projects and a home renovation surge.
The report identified 13 industries accounting for 56% of the region’s jobs, including eight sectors whose employment grew from 2018 to 2023 and 10 that employed at least 12,500 in 2023.
The sectors fell into eight major industry groups including construction; manufacturing; trade, transportation, and utilities; financial activities; professional and business services ; educational services; healthcare and social assistance; and leisure and hospitality.
Manufacturing jobs
The report cited some manufacturing sectors as going strong, which might surprise some after long manufacturing losses.
Chemical manufacturing, with 13,800 workers, employed the most people in the manufacturing sector in 2023, adding nearly 20 businesses and 700 jobs since 2018, primarily in pharmaceuticals and supplements.
“The industry, which employs a large number of scientists and researchers, tends to be high paying,” the report noted regarding the sector with an average wage of $76,800 in 2023.
Education and healthcare
The report cited educational services as the region’s largest employer, including those working in125 school districts with 414,000 students enrolled in the 2022-23 school year, and 25 colleges and universities.
“The expansion of pre-K enrollment should continue to create more positions within the field,” according to the report.
Healthcare is continuing to grow amid an aging population as hospitals continue “to rank among the largest employers on Long Island,” with the second highest wages at $105,000, of the region’s significant industries.
Ambulatory health care services is “one of the fastest growing segments of the healthcare industry,” adding 18,500 jobs between 2018 and 202.
High on hospitality
Long Island leisure and hospitality, a $6.6 billion tourism industry with 100,300 employees in 2023, also ranked among significant sectors. Food services and drinking places, part of this sector, was one of the hardest hit industries during the COVID-19 pandemic, losing 21.6% of its jobs in 2020, according to the report.
“It quickly regained the jobs lost and is currently above pre-pandemic levels,” according to the study, which projects food and drinking service employment to nearly double, growing by 94.1%, between 2020 and 2030.
Due to the “predominance of low paying and low skilled occupations within the industry,” it had the lowest average annual wage of industries in this report at $32,000 in 2023.
The building boom
The report, however, painted construction as amid a big post-pandemic boom including new buildings and renovation, as well as infrastructure improvements, including sewers, roads, and bridges “boosting construction activity.”
Heavy and civil engineering construction experienced the fastest employment growth in the sector between 2018 and 2023. That subgroup has an average annual wage of $129,600, 74.7% higher than the $74,200 region’s all-industry average wage.
In Long Island’s construction sector, 67.8% of jobs are with specialty trade contractors, composed mainly of small businesses with two thirds of employers having four or fewer employees.
“Several factors have contributed to the increased demand for specialty trade contractors,” according to the report, which cited an aging housing stock combined with record-high home prices.
The report said this “resulted in increased renovations of existing homes,” while scarce real estate led to the “repurposing of existing commercial properties.”
Healthy building
The region’s healthcare industry has “also been undergoing several expansion and renovation projects,” fueling construction. Healthcare systems are renovating vacant retail properties to build outpatient care facilities.
”Several of the region’s health care systems have been renovating and expanding local hospitals, as well as opening new outpatient care facilities,” according to the report.
Weak demand for suburban office space, meanwhile, is leading to the transformation of lower quality office spaces for industrial and residential uses.
Education is fueling construction with schools such as Hofstra University, Farmingdale State College, Nassau Community College, and Suffolk County Community College having undergone “multimillion dollar capital programs,” according to the report.
Building the future
The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which passed in 2021, the report noted, “will continue to deliver billions of dollars to fund local infrastructure projects through 2026.” Those include investments in aging highways, roads, bridges, water infrastructure, and improving regional airports.
The offshore wind industry, including upgrades to the onshore electrical transmission system, also will “benefit the heavy and civil engineering construction industry.”
The report also concluded that the construction industry will likely generate both demand and opportunity for jobs.
“Over the next decade, the impending retirement of many baby boomers will contribute to job opportunities in this industry, especially among the skilled trades,” according to the report.
