DECEMBER 2019 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 21
PRESS BUSINESS
Long Island's low unemployment rate is good for workers, bad for companies. (Getty Images)
THE EMPLOYMENT GAP
LONG ISLAND EMPLOYMENT OUTLOOK FOR 2020
BY JAMES BERNSTEIN
By almost any measure, CPI Aerostructures Inc., an airplane-parts manufacturer
in Brentwood, is a healthy company.
For the full year 2017, sales were a solid $81.3 million and the company
earned $5.8 million, up from $3.6 million the year prior. In mid-October, CPI
announced a new $48 million contract from Boeing to build parts for the Air
Force’s A-10 combat plane.
So why are CPI executives worried? They find it hard to remember a time when
it was more difficult to find qualified employees. For the first time in its nearly
40-year history, CPI recently was forced to hold a job fair, yielding mediocre
results.
“We are short maybe 10 to 15 people,” says Vincent Palazzolo, CPI’s chief
financial officer.
WHAT’S INSIDE continued on page 22
25 CORNER OFFICE 29SHAKERS 29 30 NONPROFIT
EVENTS
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CHARITY
SPOTLIGHT
WHOLLY MOLI: MADE
ON LONG ISLAND
MOVERS &
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