Not far away, the cash register at Fast Break, a local deli, is silent, its employees out of work. Next door, Browns Hardware will be shut until at least February.
The story is much the same throughout the region, where residents who lost their jobs as a result of Hurricane Sandy are streaming into career centers in New York and New Jersey, desperate for a paycheck.
“Here, it’s like anyone who didn’t lose his home lost his job,” said Juan Colon, 57, who worked at Madelaine for 26 years.
The devastating storm, which destroyed many businesses, left tens of thousands of New York and New Jersey residents unemployed. How long they will remain jobless is uncertain. In some cases, they may be able to resume their old jobs as their employers get back on their feet, assuming those businesses reopen.
The latest jobs reports from New York and New Jersey, for November, suggested the toll the storm took on the local labor force — New York State lost 29,100 private jobs, while New Jersey lost 8,100.
In the same month, New Jersey processed an unprecedented number of first-time claims for unemployment insurance: 138,661, surpassing the previous record of 83,518 established in December 2009, which came at the height of the recession. And in New York, 158,204 individuals filed initial claims for unemployment, nearing the record set in January 2009, also at the height of the recession.
The unemployment problem has eased a bit as “Grand Reopening” signs have popped up at mattress stores, gas stations and other businesses. And the number of people filing for unemployment for the first time has slowed significantly in recent weeks.
But there are still many people struggling to pay their bills, finding themselves out of a job at a time when the overall unemployment picture remains bleak.
“We were spared the storm, but not the repercussions,” said Hector Valle, 57, who lives on Staten Island. The hurricane left Mr. Valle’s home untouched, but dealt his family a mighty blow: His wife worked at Bellevue Hospital Center as a nurse’s assistant for the last 25 years. When the hurricane shuttered Bellevue, she was transferred to Woodhull Medical Center — a move that caused her to lose her overtime work, as well as part of her night differential pay.
The couple’s income fell to $1,400 a month from $2,200 a month.
“There’s nobody coming to my house to help,” said Mr. Valle, who has been unemployed for three years, “because they’re like, ‘You’re fine.’ We’re not fine.”
Those most affected are the people who already have trouble finding jobs: older workers, single parents with child-care concerns and immigrants who speak little English.
And the storm has further handicapped many of those looking for new work: Interview outfits lie moldy in Dumpsters; computers have been destroyed, résumé files gone forever. Many lack access to transportation. “There are a lot of barriers to employment, from no phone to no home,” said Thomas Munday, director of a city-run Workforce 1 Career Center on Staten Island.
When they do get jobs, many residents will face new, longer commutes, and fewer benefits.
At the Madelaine chocolate company this month, Jorge Farber, the president and chief executive, shuffled past ribbons of ruined Reese’s foil, wearing yellow rubber shoe covers slicked with slime. He intends to reopen, but could not estimate a date.
The company is the largest employer in the Rockaways, and normally pumps out 100,000 pounds of chocolate a day. It was started 64 years ago by two men fleeing the Holocaust, and about a quarter of its employees are Haitian immigrants. Many had family members who died in the 2010 Haitian earthquake.
Some of the laid-off employees have packaged chocolate here for decades. For them, Mr. Farber said, the company is a good provider: Line workers, many of whom do not speak English, make about $15 an hour, plus benefits. It would be difficult for them to find new jobs with the same salary and benefits.
Over nearly three decades, Mr. Colon rose to a supervisor position, earning about $900 a week.
When the storm left him without a job, he signed up for unemployment benefits. But he is getting only $325 a week, he said.
“I don’t know what I will do,” said Mr. Colon, who lives in a fourth-floor apartment in Far Rockaway with his wife, 22-year-old daughter and a grandchild. “Nobody can survive on $300.”
There is no telling when the company will be able to bring him back.
Some may find work related to hurricane recovery. New York State qualified for a federal grant that will allow it to hire 5,000 temporary cleanup workers for jobs that last about six months and pay $11 to $15 an hour. The city has already hired 788 people to fill some of those temporary jobs, according to Angie Kamath, deputy commissioner of work force development for the city’s Department of Small Business Services. And it will hire 400 more in the coming weeks, she said.
“We hope and expect that that number will continue to grow,” Ms. Kamath said. “The state has every intention to go after additional funding.”
The storm’s aftermath has also created private jobs. Areas hit by hurricanes almost always see a temporary boost in employment because of rebuilding activities, said Allison Plyer, chief demographer at the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, which tracked employment after Hurricane Katrina. “There will be no doubt billions of dollars of private and flood insurance to rebuild homes and businesses,” she said.
But few of those jobs will last. Many will go to out-of-state contractors. And not everyone who is out of work can fill labor-intensive cleanup positions.
Ms. Plyer also cautioned against using the experience of Hurricane Katrina to predict what will happen after Hurricane Sandy.
After Hurricane Katrina, residential areas were destroyed, while New Orleans’s business district remained relatively intact. Businesses bounced back, but the housing stock and the area’s population did not, leaving employers seeking workers. “Unemployment rates sunk to their lowest level,” Ms. Plyer said, continuing: “All the McDonald’s were offering signing bonuses. You couldn’t find anyone to work for them.”
“Katrina entailed a massive population displacement that basically emptied out the city,” she added.
On Staten Island, unemployed residents inundated a city-operated career center in St. George after the storm. About 500 people showed up during two days to apply for 240 storm cleanup jobs. (Normally 350 individuals will seek employment assistance during a five-day week.)
Mr. Valle, who once worked as a customer service representative, waited outside the center hoping to land one of those cleanup jobs. He left when all the positions had been filled.
“That was like an audition for ‘American Idol,’ ” he said. “I have never been in line with 500, 600 people for a job in my life.”
His wife, he said, had been their support for the last three years. “Sandy just yanked that from under us,” he said.
