Discussion Paper

Upstate New York Job Growth: The Bad News Is that the Good News Was Wrong

Abstract: In 2015, upstate New York looked to be having its strongest job growth in years. Employment was estimated to be growing at around one percent—below the national pace, but twice the region's trend growth rate since the end of the Great Recession. Buffalo, in particular, looked to be gaining significant numbers of construction and manufacturing jobs for the first time in decades, pushing it to its highest job growth since the late 1990s. Unfortunately, the good news was wrong. Annual benchmark revisions to New York State's employment data released in early March cut upstate's growth rate in half, indicating that the pickup in the pace of the region's job growth never really happened.

Keywords: Employment; Upstate New York; Regional;

JEL Classification: R1;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Part of Series: Liberty Street Economics

Publication Date: 2016-03-25

Number: 20160325