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So far been to Albany and Syracuse and in Buffalo now. All 3 of them have a lack of jobs, including Rochester, my personal favorite. Their population keeps dropping with only a select few nice areas in the cities. I am starting to reverse my decision on Upstate NY.
Rochester's gross metropolitan product (GMP) dropped like a rock last year, -.7% from 2012.
Basically, all that is new in that town are a handful of public works projects/heavily-subsidized projects. The private sector continues to decline in Upstate, as it has for decades.
Rochester's working age population has actually increases over the last 25 years, yet the number of locals whom are actually employed is roughly the same as in 1990.
So far been to Albany and Syracuse and in Buffalo now. All 3 of them have a lack of jobs, including Rochester, my personal favorite. Their population keeps dropping with only a select few nice areas in the cities. I am starting to reverse my decision on Upstate NY.
It depends on the type of work you can do and there is variation within each of these cities. Given that much of the growth has occurred just outside of the cities, the inability to annex land or unincorporated areas and that you can find walkable communities throughout these areas, you may have more options than you think. What areas of these cities have you been to so far? What kind of jobs are you looking for?
So far been to Albany and Syracuse and in Buffalo now. All 3 of them have a lack of jobs, including Rochester, my personal favorite. Their population keeps dropping with only a select few nice areas in the cities. I am starting to reverse my decision on Upstate NY.
While I like Upstate, I think it has a tough uphill battle to climb to become competitive enough to gain population in significant enough amounts. I have also found jobs, at least in my field, to be lacking.
Lower taxes and more small business startups can hopefully help it turn around. I guess you can also make the decision to be apart of the hopeful "Start Up NY" and get in on the ground floor or choose to live elsewhere where results might be more guaranteed.
I'm personally skeptical with the whole NY / NJ /CT area rebounding, including NYS as a whole, making promises of better days ahead with more jobs and lower taxes and it never seems to happen, at least as most people measure it. Cuomo seems to be a spin master so I'm not really trusting that Start Up NY will help things in a tangible enough way to make people like us decide to relocate there.
While I like Upstate, I think it has a tough uphill battle to climb to become competitive enough to gain population in significant enough amounts. I have also found jobs, at least in my field, to be lacking.
Lower taxes and more small business startups can hopefully help it turn around. I guess you can also make the decision to be apart of the hopeful "Start Up NY" and get in on the ground floor or choose to live elsewhere where results might be more guaranteed.
I'm personally skeptical with the whole NY / NJ /CT area rebounding, including NYS as a whole, making promises of better days ahead with more jobs and lower taxes and it never seems to happen, at least as most people measure it. Cuomo seems to be a spin master so I'm not really trusting that Start Up NY will help things in a tangible enough way to make people like us decide to relocate there.
I think another part of this is that many of the jobs that were up here(manufacturing jobs), are just leaving the country many times, let alone the state. There hasn't been as quick of an adjustment and Upstate NY actually joined the recession later than other parts of the country. With that said, it only takes one "Yes" and that is why I wouldn't discourage anyone from searching and applying for any relevant positions up here. It seems like the job search aspect has to be very strategic in general, in terms of setting up some type of local affiliation/residence/connection.
There are also examples of similar areas seeing some degree of resurgence and hopefully, leadership up here will take note of that and apply similar measures here. This is not to say that these areas don't have enough to offer or aren't trying now, but they could be better. It will be interesting to see what happens with Nanotech and the proposed Dronetech as far as job growth.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 07-28-2014 at 05:42 AM..
So far been to Albany and Syracuse and in Buffalo now. All 3 of them have a lack of jobs, including Rochester, my personal favorite. Their population keeps dropping with only a select few nice areas in the cities. I am starting to reverse my decision on Upstate NY.
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
Rochester and Buffalo Metro's have both increased population since the 2010 census. The population "decline" you speak of is suburban flight.
Buffalo has grown ~4% per year since the recession. Buffalo has been steadily adding jobs. The Upstate "decline" is in cities like Jamestown, not the major Metros.
Rochester's gross metropolitan product (GMP) dropped like a rock last year, -.7% from 2012.
Basically, all that is new in that town are a handful of public works projects/heavily-subsidized projects. The private sector continues to decline in Upstate, as it has for decades.
Rochester's working age population has actually increases over the last 25 years, yet the number of locals whom are actually employed is roughly the same as in 1990.
Computergeek,
The first thing I would recommend is getting your advice from someone who actually lives in the region.
I live in Rochester and can't think of a single person that I know who is unemployed. Additionally there are about 40,000 jobs that need filling in Rochester.
It is well documented that Rochester gets shortchanged when it comes to subsides. You may find a few projects that get 1-2 million for a 40 million project. That's nothing for a metro region that pays the most in total taxes.
Rochester has had a huge turnover the last decades, from large companies (Kodak-60,000, Xerox-18,000, B&L, General Dynamics) to small high tech firms, all the while GROWING jobs and population.
Rochester has a large research presence and produces some of the highest per capital number of patents. RIT has the only computer gamers school in the country. IBM is opening a huge data center. Have you been to our 10 day Jazz festival or checked out some of our lively neighborhoods?
con't
Sematech , IBM and about a hundred other companies are collaborating to build a chip facility in the Canal Ponds office park creating 500 jobs and using $375 million PRIVATE investment.
There's no question, all of the upstate cities are struggling, but I think you need to give upstate a second chance. What is it you are looking for?
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