CNY is showing signs of an employment boom. Here’s what to expect for 2026
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
With growth in many employment sectors, jobseekers have plenty of options in Oswego, Onondaga and Madison counties, according to Gary Morris, director of Career Services at SUNY Oswego.
“Based on 2025 projections for the Syracuse Metropolitan Statistical Area, the industries expected to add the most jobs are social assistance (+3,258), educational services (+2,087), and administrative & support services (+1,681),” Morris said. “From a compensation perspective, utilities and computer and electronic product manufacturing continue to offer the highest average annual wages.”
Jobs in utilities and computer & electronic product manufacturing require specialized skills and training. As a subset of that category, the semiconductor industry manufactures numerous products, including capacitors, resistors, microprocessors, bare and loaded printed circuit boards, electron tubes, electronic connectors, and computer modems.
According to the New York Department of Labor, “the semiconductor industry is ranked 9th in New York State in terms of earnings, growth, regional competitiveness, gross regional product, and regional specialization.”
Although Saratoga, Erie, Suffolk, Dutchess, and Broome counties were listed as the top areas to find work in this field, the construction of the new Micron Technologies facility in Clay may skew that statistic once the plant opens.
Central New York’s core industries are also holding strong and will continue to see growth throughout 2026. Karen Knapik-Scalzo, associate economist with the New York State Department of Labor Division of Research & Statistics in Syracuse, foresees growth based upon both the trends in recent local history and also current developments.
“Job growth in the Central New York region has seen particular strength in private education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and professional and business services,” Knapik-Scalzo said. “The large Interstate 81 road construction project is creating many local jobs for construction laborers (6.4% growth rate) and operating engineers and other construction equipment operators (7.3% growth rate) over the next several years. The construction of the Micron Technology semiconductor manufacturing complex in Clay, New York will also generate thousands of direct and spin-off jobs in this sector.”
In the sector of business and professional services, she anticipates 7.7% growth rate for security guards, 12.8% for janitors and cleaners, and 13.8% for landscaping and groundskeeping.
Healthcare will continue to increase in need for new workers. Losing 20% of all healthcare workers during the pandemic only exacerbated the problem of filling roles in this sector.
“As the population ages, demand for nearly all health care occupations is expected to grow over the next decade,” Knapik-Scalzo added.
She cited as examples of common and growing occupations in ambulatory health care services are home health and personal care aides (33.7% growth rate), registered nurses (21.6% growth rate) and medical assistants (28.8% growth rate).
The replacement rate of new healthcare workers is not keeping up as bottlenecks in the educational pipeline have slowed the influx. Hospitals have few slots available for residencies. Educational organizations struggle to fill instructor roles as it’s much more lucrative to practice than to teach.
With numerous large-scale construction and infrastructure improvement projects going on in Central New York, this sector should continue to see a rise in demand for workers including carpenters, electricians, painters, construction and maintenance, and project management specialists. Spin-off jobs include those related to hospitality, entertainment and property management as new workers move to the area.
Artificial intelligence continues to integrate into numerous workplaces through facilitating a variety of processes. The New York Department of Labor states that the state median advertised salary for AI skilled job postings is $84.06 an hour. Its top industries are television broadcasting stations and commercial banking.
Although the top area where AI-related jobs are offered are in New York City, the growth in demand for AI technology in Central New York should also drive the need for more workers skilled in this area.
