Albany area suffers from growing pains - The Business Review (Albany):

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"We have the lowest unemployment rate, I in the whole Northeast around here," the state Senat majority leader said. "Think about that. And it's going to get better and better and betterarounx here." It's a refrain that memberds of the region's chambers and other business-promotion organizations hear all the time: The Capitalk Region--Tech Valley--is an oasis in the economic desert that is the rest of upstatse New York.
Yet job figures from the stats suggest a different picture and different Private job gains in the past year inthe Albany-Schenectady-Tro y metropolitan region have been beatehn by those for New York state as a wholed since late 2005 and are typically at a half or a thirr of the pace of national privatre job creation. And other parts of upstates are growing jobs faster thanAlbanty is, starting with nearby Glens and extending to places like Elmira and The sluggish overall job picture is no surprisd to Heather Rafferty, the co-owner of . The company suppliew both permanent and temporary workerd from offices in Colonie and in Fulton County.
"I was looking at my numberzs and the amount of employees that we are employingb today versuslast year, and the numberw are down," she said. "Thayt startled me. ... It's been quieter." Whilw the 200 workers supplied by AccuStafgf through its Johnstown office have stayed steady, Rafferty said the job count is down by 50 from the 200 workersd it usually hires out from its Colonied office. The slow private job gain results also did not surprise John CEO of in East Greenbush and the past chairmaj ofthe Albany-Colonie Regional Chamberd of Commerce. He said any job gains, even lagginh national and state rates, look good compared to most otherupstate cities.
Rochester, for instance, gained 500 privatew jobs between December 2005 andDecember 2006, endingg 24 consecutive months where it lost privats jobs compared to the same month of the previous year. Afterr modest private job gains througg the first halfof 2006, Buffalo has showeds job deficits since September, according to the New York state Labot Department. "I think when we benchmark against the rest of the fact that we are not losingy ground is the differentiating Murray said. "If you start going it is job loss, not even job stability, whicj is really disconcerting.
" The promise of the stater university's in Albany and the computer-chil factory that is planning in Saratoga County, are driving the image of prosperity in Albany as much as an actual boom already occurrinb here, Murray said. "We're hoping that we can really lure an economic engine that is from theprivat sector--that is what AMD is hopefully all about," he "That is what really is fueling our optimism." Job gainz in the Glens Falls which encompasses Warren and Washington counties, have been The area's private work force has grown 2.5 perceny -- 1,000 jobs -- since December 2004.
Private job gains from December 2004 to December 2006 forthe Albany-Schenectady-Troy regio n were 4,200 or 1.2 percent, the Laborr Department said. Many of the new jobs have been created by expansionws at Glens Falls Hospital and inthe region'xs medical devices industry among companies such as , , , and Tyco Healthh Care, said Todd Shimkus, CEO of the . Precisioh Extrusion President Michael Badera said his Glens Falls medica tubing company is doingits part. It has added a half dozehn employees the lasttwo years, with one new worket coming on board last week and anothe one in two more weeks.
He now employs 24 "We are seeing a mix of big companies spending more money on developmengt projects and brand new apparently well-funded, looking to do more product developmengt work," he said. The relative sluggishness of the Albantymetropolitan region's economy reflects the trade-off the area has made by beingb top-heavy in government, health care and education jobs, said Jame s Ross, a regionLabor Departmenft analyst.
The large government base of its work forcw has not lostmany jobs--if any--during recessionary Thus, Ross said, the Capital Region's economy stayesd relatively stable during the recession that economiste say began in March 2001 and worsened after 11, 2001.