Most of the job growth in New York State during the past year has been in New York City and on Long Island. Three of Upstate New York's major areas have had limited annual job growth. Albany has suffered from the downsizing of State government. Buffalo's economy has been hurt by the weak dollar in Canada. Rochester has been adversely affected by job cuts at Eastman Kodak.
Long Island is in the midst of an economic recovery.
The May 1997 unemployment rate in the Long Island area was only 3.6 percent. Because defense industry activities previously dominated Long Island's economy, the area was particularly hard hit from 1989 through 1992 when more than 100,000 jobs were lost. Since then employment has increased by 6 percent. The recovery was initially very slow and confined largely to low-paying jobs in the service sector. However, since early 1996 there has been a surge in higher paying jobs in finance, tourism, and trade.