National Job Numbers Inspire Optimism, But Central Brooklyn Lags Behind

For Americans still struggling in the aftermath of one of the worst recessions in U.S. history, Friday's most recent job statistics provided a welcome sign of slow, but steady gains in hiring.

But local business leaders and advocates for the unemployed say the pain for many Brooklyn jobseekers shows no signs of abating—despite the rosier employment picture nationally.

"The national numbers are encouraging," said Georgianna Glose of Fort Greene Strategic Neighborhood Action Partnership, an organization providing job training, placement and other assistance for unemployed residents. "But realistically, in this neighborhood, that number does not apply here."

For the first time in four years, the national unemployment rate dropped to its lowest point in four years to 7.8 percent, with payrolls rising 114,000 in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Brooklyn, the most current jobless rate was pegged at 10.5 percent.

Glose said unemployment still remained in the 20 to 30 percent range in many pockets of Central Brooklyn. 

"Poor communities always suffer the most in a recession," she said. "They suffer first and they suffer the longest."

The borough's business community—buoyed by last week's opening of Barclays Center—acknowledged that the slow momentum in terms of job creation nationally hadn't yet trickled down to the neediest in Brooklyn.

"Today’s news from the Labor Department that the national unemployment rate has fallen to 7.8 percent is a step in the right direction," said Carlo Scissura, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. "However, the most important thing for us, where unemployment is 20 percent and 30 percent in some communities across Central Brooklyn, is to focus on job growth and job training."

That's exactly what Glose says she and her staff based in a small storefront on Myrtle Avenue are trying to do.

"There just aren't enough opportunities out there," she said. "There may be really low wage jobs out there but no one can support a family on that."

Since plans were unveiled in 2004, developers of Barclays Center and other business leaders trumpeted the project as a center of job creation in the borough—both in terms of the arena itself and the increased economic activity promised in its wake.

But so far, the jobs created by Barclays have been mostly part-time event, janitorial and ticketing positions.

"It's all low-wage jobs," Glose said.