We are in the process of distributing the 2024 Business Guide, which we published late last year.
Higher education and medical institutions — known as ‘eds and meds’ — remain the largest employers in Central New York, according to the guide, based on data collected in November 2023.
SUNY Upstate leads the list — it employs 11,725 people, followed by Syracuse University (5,000) and St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center (3,976), according to the guide.
In Oswego County, Oswego Health is the No. 1 private employer, with 1,318 employees. In the public sector in Oswego County, SUNY Oswego is the largest employer. When we combine private and public sectors, SUNY Oswego comes on top with 1,568 employees, not counting nearly 2,000 student-workers.
The prominence of eds and meds is nothing new — it has been a trend for the last 20 years or so in most of the country.
A study by Brookings Institution conducted several years ago shows that a college, university or medical institution is a top 10 private employer in every one of the 20 largest cities in the U.S. Upstate New York is no different. Eds and meds are the dominant sectors in Buffalo, Rochester and Albany. Organization like University of Rochester Medical Center and Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo employ thousands of people.
Manufacturing is also big in the region, the guide shows. Novelis, Huhtamaki and Fulton companies lead the list of largest manufacturers in Oswego; Lockheed Martin, Tessy Plastics and Raytheon Technologies lead the list in Onondaga. Micron, we hope, will soon join the pack.
Our 30th annual guide is packed with detailed information on nearly 300 organizations. It also brings profiles of dozens of business and community leaders. We feature profiles of bankers, plant managers, chief executive officers, educators, leaders in the nonprofit world and much more. They talk about their educational background, career, management style, hobbies and, equally important, they talk about ways CNY can become a better place to live and work.
The Business Guide also brings information on demographics. Central New York’s population remains predominantly white. In Oswego County, 91.3% of the 118,287 people (as of 2022) are white, followed by Cayuga (87.9%) and Jefferson (82.5%). In Onondaga County, 74.1% of the population is white.
The Business Guide is truly a great resource. It’s all there — right to the point, easy to follow and with all the hard data easily accessible. It’s our most ambitious project of the year.
If you haven’t received the publication, you can still get one for free — just subscribe to Oswego County Business online —www.OswegoCountyBusiness.com — or by mail. We will be happy to send you a copy.
Wagner Dotto is the editor and publisher of Oswego County Business Magazine.
