The total number of employed workers in upstate regions — including Central New York, the Mohawk Valley, the North Country, Southern Tier, and Western New York — declined in the five-year period between 2011 and 2016.

Meanwhile, the number of employed workers increased in other regions around New York, particularly downstate.

That’s according to a report entitled “Labor Force Trends in New York State,” which New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released Sept. 4.

“Factors driving such labor-force declines could include migration of workers to other regions within New York or outside the state, as well as individuals dropping out of the workforce,” according to the report’s executive summary.

The report found most upstate regions posted employment “declines” in 2016, even as more than 9.1 million New Yorkers were working “for the first time since the Great Recession,” led by growth Downstate. 

Regional growth remained “uneven,” with downstate regions generating the “highest” employment growth.

While each of New York’s 10 labor-market regions had unemployment rates decline sharply from 2011 to 2016, in half of those markets, the number of people with jobs also dropped. For example, the employment count dipped 2 percent in Central New York, 4 percent each in the Mohawk Valley and North Country, and 6 percent in the Southern Tier. Western New York posted a 1 percent decline in employed workers.

Factors could include worker migration or workers dropping out of the labor force, DiNapoli’s office said. 

A shrinking workforce can “dampen” economic growth, “affecting the vitality” of local communities and “raising fiscal issues” at state and local levels, the comptroller said.

Other findings 

The DiNapoli report found that Long Island had the highest labor-force participation rate of any region in the state in 2016, at 63.8 percent. Participation rates in the Capital Region and the Hudson Valley also topped 60 percent, followed by New York City. The North Country had the lowest labor-force participation rate at just over 50 percent. The Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley had participation rates in the mid-50s.

As of 2016, more than 913,000 New Yorkers were unemployed, marginally attached to the labor force or working part-time for “economic reasons.” 

The report also found nearly 24 percent of workers in New York belonged to unions in 2016, the “highest” participation rate of any state and “more than double” the national average.

New York’s labor force is “well educated,” with 40.6 percent holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 34.7 percent nationwide.

The workforce is aging in New York and nationally, with the number of workers aged 65 and over rising by 26 percent in New York over the past five years, compared to a 19 percent increase nationwide. 

Statewide, women constitute nearly 48 percent of the labor force, slightly higher than the national average.                           

CICERO — Construction crews are working to build the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Central New York at 7932 Brewerton Road in Cicero.

Chick-fil-A is an Atlanta, Georgia–based restaurant chain that specializes in chicken sandwiches. The company on Aug. 29 broke ground on its upcoming location in Cicero. 

“We feel like we’ve got a terrific site here. We want to thank Cicero for inviting us to be here,” Craig Perry, senior management consultant with Chick-fil-A, said in remarks during the groundbreaking ceremony.

Chick-fil-A corporate representatives joined community leaders at the event that offered details about the new restaurant, plans for future hiring, and an update on the chain’s planned upstate New York expansion.

The Cicero site, located in front of a Home Depot store, is the first of four restaurants the chain expects to open in the region in the next two years. 

Besides the location in Cicero, Chick-fil-A also plans to open upstate restaurants in the Rochester area, Buffalo, and Plattsburgh in 2018 and 2019. 

Chick-fil-A already operates about seven eateries in Manhattan and another four on Long Island, Perry told those gathered at the ceremony.

“We’re very conservative in our growth. We move at a very steady pace,” Perry told CNYBJ in an interview following the ceremony. 

Once the Cicero store opens, Chick-fil-A will eventually add more locations in Central New York and “develop this area out,” Perry added.

Jimmer Szatkowski, a native of Medina, New York in Orleans County, is the local franchisee.

Projected to open in the first quarter of 2018, the new 5,000-square-foot Cicero restaurant will offer indoor and outdoor dining as well as a playground for children. The location will have two drive-thru ordering lanes.

When it opens, Chick-fil-A expects the restaurant will create between 80 and 90 jobs 

Seekonk, Massachusetts–based D.F. Pray General Contractors is the contractor on the project, Perry told CNYBJ.

In addition, the Albany office of Warren, New Jersey–based Bohler Engineering is handling the engineering work on the project.

The company also has a staff of in-house designers to handle that part of the project, Perry said.

Chick-fil-A describes itself as a “family owned and privately held restaurant company founded in 1967 by S. Truett Cathy.”

The company has more than 2,200 restaurants in 46 states and Washington, D.C., according to its news release. The restaurant chain generated nearly $8 billion in sales in 2016.