THE STATE ECONOMY
Job growth within the State also shows regional disparities. In 1998, the New York economy created 128,000 new jobs. Had Upstate New York been a separate state, its rank would have been 49th. Indeed, Suffolk County alone added more jobs than all of upstate New York (see Figure 2). Moreover, downstate regional growth has been extremely uneven. Suffolk, Queens, New York, and Richmond Counties did well in 1998, while Nassau and Kings performed much less vigorously. The Bronx actually lost jobs in 1998. }
Figure 1
From the chart above it's clear that in 1998 New York State did better. With a total job growth rate of 2.2 percent, it moved from 40th place to 35th place. Regional disparities grew, however. Upstate's job growth in 1998 was worse than in 1997. If Upstate were (as it should be) an independent state it would rank 49th in the nation, surpassing only Hawaii. (Hawaii continues to lose jobs due to a reduction in travel caused by the Asian crisis.)
Figure 2
Figure 3
In the Western New York region, a net loss of about 500 automotive jobs occurred, while about 400 tourism jobs were gained. Average earnings, however, for these two industries were $39,000 and less than $16,000, respectively.
Similarly, in the Finger Lakes region, over 9,000 electronic manufacturing jobs, paying an average wage of over $58,000 were lost. During the same period, about 1,500 new daycare/home care jobs, with an average annual salary of only $18,000 were created.
During the period from 1992 to 1998, the computer industry performed extremely well in terms of job growth. Total employment in this industry rose from about 50,000 in 1992 to about 93,000 in 1998, a gain of 87.4 percent. Much of this growth, however, was restricted to the New York City region where the corresponding rate of growth was 134.0 percent. Some regions, such as Central New York, where this sector showed a slight decline of 0.5 percent, seemed to have been bypassed by this fast growing industry.
For the State as a whole, the biotechnology industry actually showed a decline of 0.5 percent during this expansion period. There were differences across regions, of course. The biotechnology industry in the Long Island region experienced job growth of almost 6.0 percent, while in the case of Western New York, where this industry has a large presence, there was a decline in employment of about 8.0 percent.
Data like the above just
demonstrates what we have been saying all along:
1. Upstate is an economic disaster
2. We must change what's not working for us
3. Downstate is doing much better and has little reason to change
4. Downstate has all the votes and all the political power
5. It's time to form our own state (51st) made up of 40+ counties
6. We must immediately begin to re-build our
economy
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