What’s good for JFK is good for NYC.
When things started getting busy in August for David Rosenthal and his staff at JFK Advanced Medical, they knew a comeback was in the works. As one of two health clinics at John F. Kennedy International Airport that do physicals and drug screenings for airport workers, Mr. Rosenthal’s waiting room can serve as a barometer of the health of the airport economy.
“We’re loaded with pre-employment testing now, which means companies are hiring,” Mr. Rosenthal says. “It’s fantastic.”
Whether it’s assessing potential baggage handlers, flight attendants or Transportation Security Administration screeners, the clinic is 50% busier than it was at the end of last year, he says, and the staff has grown to 15 from six.
The new venues popping up around JFK—a store here, a restaurant there—provide hopeful signs of a recovery for the travel industry, and possibly for New York’s economy as a whole.
“Clearly, something is going on here, and the travel end of it could be the tip of the iceberg,” says Ken Goldstein, an economist with The Conference Board Inc. “Business is up; people are coming here and spending money. But the question is, is this the catalyst that starts a brush fire that can lead to a prairie fire?”
If so, look out, New York. JFK’s airlines are adding hundreds of flight attendants here, the TSA is hiring 300 more screeners, and the $1.2 billion Delta Air Lines terminal project, slated to break ground later this month, is expected to add as many as 10,000 jobs over the next three years.
People who work at JFK sometimes call it “a city within a city,” and in some ways, it is. There’s a steady work force of more than 35,000 people, and since the facility has both day and night shifts, it, too, is a city that never sleeps. The airport generates about 230,000 jobs in the area and an estimated $9.8 billion in wages and salaries annually, according to its landlord, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.
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