During the three-year period covered by the latest data, the weakest metropolitan labor markets in the state have Binghamton, Elmira and Utica-Rome, respectively. The upstate area with the greatest job growth, Glens Falls, was also the only one to exceed the statewide average. Among upstate’s larger labor markets, the strongest job gains were in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro area, which has benefited from a large infusion of state subsidies to high-tech businesses over the past 15 years.

In percentage terms, New York State as a whole ranks 21^st out of 50 states in private job creation since November 2010. But upstate alone, if considered as a separate state, would rank dead last in job growth, as shown in Figure 2 below.

One thing upstate and downstate have in common is a long-term decline in manufacturing employment, which has dropped by 50 percent in the last 2 years. Manufacturing employment has been decreasing nationwide for decades–until recently, at least—but in New York, the losses have been greater.

As shown below in Table 2, during the most recent three-year period, New York’s manufacturing sector lost 16,000 jobs, a drop of 3.4 percent, while the nation was adding 412,000 jobs, a growth rate of 3.5 percent.Upstate manufacturing losses were concentrated in Rochester and Syracuse, while Buffalo held its own. The largest percentage gain in manufacturing jobs came in Albany-Schenectady-Troy, which has benefitted from state-subsidized high-tech development. New York City, which has been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs for decades, actually registered a small gain during the three years ending November 2013, according to preliminary data.

The tax-cut package endorsed by the governor yesterday—first recommended by the Pataki-McCall commission last month—combines dubious “property tax relief” with solid pro-growth business tax cuts, including the complete elimination of the remaining state corporate tax on manufacturers and a statewide reduction in the corporate tax rate (to its lowest level since 1968).  These changes will certainly, to at least some degree, improve the state’s economic competitiveness, but upstate has a long way to go.

Unfortunately, the Cuomo administration continues to stall or ignore other reforms that would do more to boost the struggling economy north of the mid-Hudson, in particular — starting with approval of regulations permitting natural gas exploration through hydraulic “fracking” operations in the Southern Tier, where employment has remained flat or declining even during the economic recovery.