New York

III

Economic Activities

New York surpasses all other states except California in total personal income, and it ranks fourth in the nation in income generated by manufacturing. It is the commercial and financial leader of the country as well as a leading distribution center. Its ports—including New York City, Buffalo, and Albany—handle much of the foreign trade of the United States. Many of the nation’s leading industrial firms have their headquarters in the state, most of them in New York City’s borough of Manhattan. Wall Street is justly famous as the world’s financial center, and upstate cities also have important financial resources. Such financial institutions, when combined with insurance and real-estate companies, contribute almost one-third of the state’s gross product. Following that sector in order of value are the services, trade, and manufacturing sectors.

In 2006 some 9,499,000 people were employed in New York. By far the largest portion of them, 43 percent, worked in service industries such as dry cleaners and restaurants. Another 18 percent held jobs in wholesale or retail trade; 17 percent in federal, state, or local government, including those serving in the military; 37 percent in finance, insurance, or real estate; 11 percent in manufacturing; 5 percent in transportation or public utilities; 5 percent in construction; 1 percent in farming, fishing, or forestry; and only a small fraction of 1 percent in mining. In 2005, 26 percent of New York’s workers were members of labor unions, the largest percentage of any state.

A

Agriculture

In 2005 there were 35,600 farms in New York. Of those, 50 percent had annual sales of more than $10,000. Most of the remaining farms were sideline operations for farmers who also held other jobs. Farmland occupied 3.1 million hectares (7.5 million acres), of which 61 percent was cropland. The rest was mostly pasture or woodland.

Dairying is New York’s most important farming activity. More than one-half of the state’s farm income comes from the production of milk and cream. Most of the dairy production is sold as fluid milk, although butter and cheese are important products as well. The dairy areas are located in the Hudson, St. Lawrence, Black, and Mohawk valleys. Cattle and calves are also raised for beef production. Poultry products, including eggs, are also important. Poultry farms are concentrated on Long Island, which is famous for its ducks. Chickens and turkeys are also raised.

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In the production of potatoes, New York ranks among the top dozen states. About one-third of the output comes from Long Island.

The production of fruit is important in the state. In the late 1990s New York ranked second among the states in production of apples and in the top three states in production of grapes. Tart cherries, pears, and plums are also important crops. Most New York apples are grown in Wayne County east of Rochester and in the mid-Hudson Valley. The grapes come from vineyards along the Lake Erie shore and in the Finger Lakes region, although significant amounts of grapes for wine are grown in eastern Long Island. New York state’s wines are among the best wines produced in the United States.

In maple syrup production, New York competes with Vermont for top place among the states. The other important crops grown in New York include corn, onions, cabbage, and hay. The Ontario Lake plain south of Lake Ontario is the state’s vegetable-growing area and also has numerous flower and plant nurseries. Many of the vegetables grown there are canned or frozen.

B

Fishing and Forestry

Commercial and recreational fishing is carried on in the lower Great Lakes and in the waters surrounding Long Island. The lower Great Lakes system yields lake perch, bullheads, pike, and eel. Trout species such as lake, brown, and rainbow inhabit this system, along with coho and chinook salmon. Walleye and smallmouth bass are native to these waters, and muskellunge thrive in the upper Niagara and the St. Lawrence rivers, the connecting channels of the system. Long Island Sound is noted for its yield of oysters and clams; other sea-life taken in the sound include bluefish, striped bass, flounder, scup, and lobster. Water quality in the Hudson River has improved since the mid-1970s, so that alewife, blueback herring, striped bass, and Atlantic sturgeon are once again found there in number. American shad continue to run in the Hudson River each spring. In 2004 the total fish catch brought $46.4 million into the state’s economy.

While forestry is no longer a leading industry in the state, it is still important, particularly by supplying raw material for the state’s pulp and paper industry as well as hardwoods for furniture and veneers. Some softwoods are cut, including pines, spruces, and hemlocks, but most of the timber harvest consists of hardwoods, such as maple, birch, ash, and oak. It is these hardwoods that are used in the furniture industry. Beech, though widespread, suffers from an introduced disease and has little commercial value.

C

Mining

The mineral industry of New York is devoted principally to the production of nonmetallics. Leading this group are crushed stone, cement, salt, and sand and gravel for construction. Stones for both construction and ornamental uses are mined, the most important being limestone and dolomite. Salt, of which New York is one of the nation’s leading producers, comes from both mines and salt wells, in Livingston, Tompkins, Schuyler, Onondaga, Wyoming, and Yates counties. Sand and gravel are abundant in the glacial deposits of the state. Gypsum is mined in Erie and Genesee counties. Clay deposits are worked and used in the manufacture of bricks and pottery. Talc is recovered in several mines around Gouverneur, in St. Lawrence County. Garnets, used as an abrasive, are also mined in the southeastern Adirondacks. Other nonmetallic minerals produced include emery, lime, and wollastonite, which is used in ceramics, paints, and plastics.

Zinc deposits are worked in St. Lawrence County. Some lead is also extracted from these lead-zinc ores, and a little silver is recovered as a by-product of the ore. New York ranks third in zinc production. When it is profitable, iron ore is mined in Essex and St. Lawrence counties in the Adirondacks. There are natural gas wells in the southwestern portions of the state, in Cattaraugus, Allegany, Steuben, and Chautauqua counties.

D

Manufacturing

New York’s leading industries, in terms of value added by manufacturing, are the printing and publishing industry, the manufacture of instruments, the production of electric and electronic devices, the chemical industry, the construction of industrial machinery, food processing, apparel and other textile manufacturing, and the fabrication of metal products. While the state remains one of the industrial powerhouses of the nation, manufacturing was in decline as a segment of the New York economy by the 1970s. Employment in the state’s industries fell by nearly one-quarter between 1983 and 1993. The decline was especially drastic in New York City, which lost more than two-fifths of its manufacturing jobs. Yet New York City, with its 1.7 million jobs, continues to dominate state employment. Contributing to the decline in manufacturing employment was the movement by some large corporations of their headquarters or operations from New York to neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut or to Southern and Western states. Between 1983 and 1993 the state lost about 328,000 manufacturing jobs. The decline is expected to continue into the next century, with estimates by the United States government anticipating a drop in manufacturing employment of more than 1 percent each year until the year 2005.

The New York City metropolitan area, including parts of eight counties, has many of the industrial workers in the state and generates much of the state’s industrial income. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany-Schenectady-Troy, Utica-Rome, and Binghamton are the other manufacturing centers of significance.

Printing and publishing are the leading source of industrial jobs. The high-value printing and publishing industry is heavily concentrated in the New York City metropolitan area.

The instruments industry is centered at Rochester, which is noted for its cameras and optical goods. Other instruments manufactured in quantity in New York are those used in navigation, surgery and medicine, and measuring electricity.

The electrical and electronics industry is a large single source of manufacturing jobs in New York. New York City, Nassau and Suffolk counties, Syracuse, Schenectady, and Utica are major centers of this industry. Schenectady, the home town of the General Electric Company, is a center for the production of electric generators and other major electrical equipment.

The production of chemicals ranks high among New York’s industrial activities. Chemicals produced include pharmaceuticals, a variety of goods for the household bath, plastics, and synthetic rubbers.

The manufacture of industrial machinery is led by the construction of refrigeration and heating equipment. Many workers are employed building turbines and generators, while other machines built include internal combustion engines, air and gas compressors, and peripheral equipment for computers.

The food-processing industry is also important. Buffalo is a leading flour-milling center and has some meat-packing. Wine, cheese, butter, cereals, and bakery and brewery products are processed at numerous locations. There are huge sugar refineries and coffee and spice warehouses in Brooklyn, New York City.

The apparel industry, though declining, is still a major source of jobs and continues to thrive in low-wage immigrant areas of New York City, which remains a center for the manufacture of women’s clothes and fur garments. Outside of New York City, Rochester was long noted for men’s and boys’ clothing, while Binghamton, Endicott, and Johnstown were centers for leather products. Troy was famous as a shirt-making center.