DiNapoli: Report finds mixed job picture in upstate New York

ALBANY, N.Y. — Upstate New York “lags” behind downstate New York and the nation in job growth since the “Great Recession.” 

That’s according to a report examining upstate employment trends that New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued Friday. 

The report found that since June 2009, total employment in upstate New York rose 0.3 percent compared to 2.2 percent in the downstate region and 1.9 percent nationwide during the same time frame.

“Encouragingly,” the overall average-annual wage gain in upstate of 3.3 percent outpaced both the downstate and national averages in 2015, DiNapoli’s said in a news release.

“On the surface, New York’s economy has rebounded from the Great Recession,” DiNapoli said. “But it should come as no surprise that a closer look reveals pockets of the state still have a long way to go to catch up.”

Total upstate New York employment reached nearly 3.1 million jobs in mid-2008 and declined over the next 19 months, to a recessionary low point of 2.9 million in February 2010, DiNapoli’s report noted. 

As of June 2016, upstate had regained 79 percent of a total 128,000 jobs lost during and after the recession.

Total employment across upstate New York currently stands at slightly more than 3 million, representing 32 percent of all jobs statewide, DiNapoli’s office said.

Regional job changes
From the end of the last recession in mid-2009 through June 2016, upstate New York’s largest overall job growth, 2.2 percent, occurred in the Capital Region. 

The job gains in the Finger Lakes and Western New York regions were “somewhat smaller.” 

Five regions lost jobs over the period. The Mohawk Valley (down 2.8 percent) and the Southern Tier (a loss of 2.5 percent) had the “most pronounced” declines, according to DiNapoli’s office. 

The Central New York, North Country, and Upper Hudson Valley also had “overall employment declines.” 

Over the most recent year, however, employment rose in all regions except the Southern Tier, DiNapoli’s office said.

Industry sectors
Among industry sectors, the leisure and hospitality industry produced upstate New York’s largest employment growth from 2010 through 2015, adding almost 26,000 jobs. 

The accommodation and food-services industry added 87 percent of those jobs, or more than 22,000 positions, the report found. 

Education and health services contributed more than 20,000 jobs. Both professional and business services, and the trade-transportation-utilities sector, added more than 10,000 jobs over the period.

The report revealed the largest job losses of any sector during the period were, “by far,” those in government, with a decline of 5.9 percent, or almost 34,000 positions. 

Such reductions were “widespread” across upstate. 

Western New York, the largest overall labor market in the group, had the “most significant” decline at more than 6,500 jobs, while the Southern Tier and Capital Region lost more than 5,000 public-sector jobs over the period.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com