Schenectady is where it's at in the Capital Region, for high paying jobs. That's according to Eric Anderson at the Times Union, detailing a new Bureau of Labor Statistics report:
Workers there averaged $959 a week, or nearly $50,000 a year, according to the report issued Thursday. Workers in second-place Albany County, by comparison, averaged $912 a week, or a little more than $47,000 a year. While both figures are below the statewide average of $1,078 a week, they topped the national average of $865.
You're going to have to forgive me, but I couldn't help apply some synecdoche to Schenectady: perhaps this is the reason their jobs report is so good. Anderson also reports on TU's Buzz blog that STS Steel in Schenectady has picked up a $13.4 million contract for a transit center downstate.
State of Broome County
In stark contracts to the mayor of Binghamton's state of the city last week, which was rife with optimism, Broome County's outgoing executive Barbara Fiala called for "sacrifice" in her state of the county address last night. Jon Campbell at the Press & Sun-Bulletin reports that Fiala "cautioned a difficult fiscal situation still lies ahead" during her address:
"We need to all commit to a collective sacrifice that will not be pleasant," said Fiala, who plans to resign in April to take over as commissioner of the state Department of Motor Vehicles. "Here at the county level, more jobs will probably be lost, additional services will more than likely be cut. And our constituents that rely on these services will not be happy either because their lives will be impacted in a negative way." The outgoing county executive said 2010 sales tax revenue showed a 1.5 percent increase over the previous year. She also pointed to an 8.5 percent unemployment rate that dropped more than a percentage point from earlier in the year. She said mortgage tax receipts were up in January from a year prior and health care costs have remained steady.
Make money money (you hope)
Jodi Beggs at Economists Do It With Models points us to a comic and a Big Bang Theory transcript that illustrate why small business owners should probably take an economics class or two before jumping in:
Dear world: if you want to run a profitable business, you have to focus on, well, profit. And, by the way, revenue and profit are not the same thing…and, no, units sold and profit are not the same thing either. (If this were true, it would always be an optimal strategy to give away your product for free or even pay people to take your product, right?) I remember going into a Dunkin Donuts a couple of years ago and seeing a sign that said something along the lines of “we apologize, but we have to raise prices to make up for lost sales due to the bad economy.” I think it was only the fact that I was hungover that prevented me from pointing out to the cashier that her employer was totally doing it wrong.
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