New York Post

A light at the end of the tunnel

- Ruth Brown

The future is seriously bright for this Brooklyn worker.

When the company that Rosy Parellada worked for closed down at the beginning of the year, the Park Slope woodworker wasn’t worried — she knew that with her hands-on experience and the jobs boom she would land on her feet.

As it turns out, she scored an even better gig at a high-end lighting manufactur­er.

“I was very comfortabl­e I was going to find something. I have the skills, I have the experience,” Parellada told The Post.

“Right now, we have one of the lowest unemployme­nt rates in many years. [New York] is a great place to find a job right now.”

After a three-month job search, Parellada was hired in March as a production assistant at Juniper Design in Sunset Park, where she gets to flex her creative muscles making lamps and light accessorie­s.

“It’s a step up from woodworkin­g. This is a more freeing environmen­t. If you’ve ever been into a workshop, there’s wood everywhere, there’s dust everywhere,” she said.

“I’m in an environmen­t that I love. I have a passion for what I do . . . I get to have a creative mind.”

Juniper Design is one of more than 450 businesses in the Industry City business complex, and Parellada found her job through its on-site employment center in March.

More than 7,000 people now work at Industry City, and that figure is growing by about 100 jobs per month, said a rep for the complex.

In business since 2011, Juniper em- ploys 20 people, and Parellada says new hires are joining all the time.

“We’re growing more and more every day. It’s fantastic. I think everybody likes what we’re doing. It’s thriving,” she said.

“If a person is looking for work, has some discipline and [likes] making things happen, this is the place for them.”

She’s looking forward to a future with Juniper as it continues to grow.

“We all take pride in what we’re doing here,” she said. “Me, in particular, when I work, I build things like they were my own.”

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