Almost no Upstate job growth for 2005
Upstate New York barely produced any net new jobs in 2005, the state Labor Department reported with release of revised figures for the end of the year. Upstate's private-sector employment rose 0.2 percent, while the downstate region added jobs at a pace of 1.3 percent, and the nation's employment rose 1.7 percent.
The statewide private-sector job growth of 0.9 percent was just more than half the nation's growth rate. Matching the national pace would have given New York another 55,000 jobs.
We give the state Labor Department full credit for including the New York-national comparison in the first paragraph of its press release. We wish every news report on the subject included similar details. Instead, news stories often focus on the unemployment rate. That's a less useful indicator than the growth in jobs. When people move elsewhere in search of opportunity, the unemployment rate improves even though the state's economic vitality diminishes.
Three Upstate regions (Binghamton, Buffalo-Niagara Falls and Elmira) lost jobs during 2005, the Labor Department reported. The Southern Tier was hit especially hard. Kingston, Rochester and Utica saw no growth, but no net losses either. The state's Capital Region, Syracuse, Glens Falls and Ithaca all are doing well enough that local leaders say they're doing well. But their 2005 growth rates barely surpassed half the national job pace.
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