Cosentino: County’s economic future a mixed bag

When Roger Evans, a principal economist of the New York State Department of Labor made what has become his annual appearance before members of the Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce late last month, he gave a mix of the good and bad for Cayuga County and the upstate region.

On the good news front he made it clear that the county has seen a continual dip in unemployment numbers since a high above 8 percent in 1991 to 5.2 percent (still higher than both the national and New York averages). One of the reasons for this and this isn’t good news — is the continual decline in population numbers.

Looking at county population projections, both past and into the future the numbers are not good. From more than 82,000 citizens at the beginning of the decade to a projection of less than 72,000 as we near 2030 (really not that long from now) we are seeing a massive drop in the number of citizens. By the way, these population trends are not specific to Cayuga County. Evans indicated that there would be another 330,000 New Yorkers if the state had kept pace with the national population trends over the last decade. Couple this with an aging population locally and there will be fewer available workers to fill the jobs of the future.