While manufacturing jobs have declined over the past decade in Cayuga County and across central New York, the total number of jobs is up.

An influx of retail, food service, tourism and other jobs has made the labor market in the county as diverse as ever.

But the system used by the state Department of Labor to track jobs in the county has become less diverse in the past year.

According to officials, it could continue to do so.

Every month, the labor department releases statistics that map the number of jobs in the state, industry by industry. By inquiring on the department's Web site www.labor.state.ny.us/, one can see how many jobs there are in the state or a specific county, and compare that information with prior months or years.

The information is broken down into categories, such as manufacturing, retail trade, health care and others. But since 2007, the department has reduced the categories for listing Cayuga County's data.

Previously, the “Trade, Transportation and Utilities” title was broken down into categories for transportation, warehousing, utilities, wholesale trade and retail trade. For those who look at the data today, those categories are nonexistent.

The department also used to specify the number of health care and social assistance jobs. The numbers for that category now only appear as part of education and health service jobs.

According to Roger Evans, an economist for the state Department of Labor, that data comes from national Department of Labor statistics. But the federal department no longer creates the surveys for those smaller categories, Evans said.

“They've made that decision nationwide,” he said.

State labor research has been able to continue to release data on separate industries for Cayuga County by finding separate funding. But without the federal samples, it is difficult to replenish the data, Evans said.

“That is why we don't have as much detail as in the past, and why we will have less detail in the future,” Evans said.

The information is used by a number of organizations and agencies. For instance, the Cayuga Works career center in Auburn often presents the statistics in its employment workshops to help give participants an idea of the job market.