September 1, 1986

After five years of steady business expansion, New York City's suburbs face a quandary: thousands of jobs wait to be filled, but the soaring cost of suburban life is making some newly arrived workers sorry they came. Hundreds of workers who have come from New York City and more distant parts of the country are taking refuge in shelters for the homeless in southern Connecticut, Westchester County and northern New Jersey, and on Long Island. Many of the homeless have jobs, and most others expect little trouble finding them, but they say they cannot afford homes or apartments. Experts worry that the problem will grow more severe as word of the area's plentiful job opportunities spreads through oil-producing states of the Sun Belt, the steel and auto cities of the Middle West and other depressed parts of the country. 'Can I Make Enough to Live?'

The collision today between a Mexican airliner and a small private plane in southern California was the first serious accident in the nation this year, when crowded skies and an understaffed air traffic control system have caused concern about air safety. Investigators said it was too soon to determine what caused the accident southeast of Los Angeles. But the pattern it followed has long haunted those concerned with aviation safety: An airliner filled with passengers approaches a busy airport on a Sunday when the sky is crowded with unusually large numbers of pleasure fliers and, because of error by one or more pilots or by a traffic controller on the ground, they collide. The collision today also resulted in the most feared ending to that pattern when wreckage from the two planes rained into a residential neighborhood, setting homes ablaze.

Senior Reagan Administration officials said today that the United States would retaliate against the Soviet Union unless a U.S. News & World Report correspondent arrested in Moscow Saturday was freed promptly. They said the Administration had ruled out trading a Soviet physicist arrested recently in New York for the correspondent, Nicholas Daniloff, and was prepared for a long confrontation over this issue. One White House official said the longer Mr. Daniloff remained in detention, the worse it would be for Washington-Moscow relations. U.S. Aides Called 'Furious' He said ''a lot of people in this Administration are furious'' about what he called the ''frame-up'' of Mr. Daniloff, who is under investigation in a Moscow prison by the K.G.B., accused of espionage. Mr. Daniloff was seized in Moscow after a Soviet acquaintance gave him an envelope that contained two maps marked ''top secret.'' ''The White House will not make any deals for Daniloff's release, since he is not a spy, and to do so would make any American hostage to this kind of frame-up,'' a senior official said. ''Moscow must learn it cannot keep doing this.''

Henry Moore, a sculptor pre-eminent in 20th-century art and a particular and longtime favorite in the United States, where he was represented by carvings, bronzes and drawings almost beyond number in both public and private collections, died early yesterday at his home in Much Hadham, England. He was 88 years old. No cause of death was given, but he had been ill with arthritis and diabetes. Throughout the latter part of his life, Henry Moore was in many parts of the world the No. 1 choice whenever a public sculpture was needed. This was especially the case with new museums. From Mies van der Rohe's National Gallery in West Berlin to I. M. Pei's East Wing at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Henry Moore was the man of whom almost everyone thought first. The same was true of municipalities, large corporations, theaters, opera houses, banks, hotels and luxury apartment houses. In almost every case it was thought that a large Henry Moore work out front would add a final distinction.

An Aeromexico jetliner approaching the Los Angeles International Airport collided with a small private plane today, raining destruction on a quiet residential neighborhood as bodies and fiery debris hurtled to the ground. At least 67 people were killed and it appeared that the toll would climb with casualties on the ground. Inspector Rob Smith of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said deaths of ''two or three'' people on the ground had been confirmed so far by the County Coroner's Office. He said that the identities had not been established.