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"Cautiously Optimistic" About Continued Growth In The Local Economy

 Downtown Rochester skyline view.
Max Schulte
/
WXXI News
Downtown Rochester skyline view.

The Rochester economy may have taken a step back in recent months due to losses in manufacturing, but overall there is hope for continued job growth in other areas.

That was among the opinions expressed Tuesday in a "State of Rochester’s Economy" luncheon sponsored by the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation.

Gary Keith is regional economist for M & T bank, and he says despite the fact that this part of the state saw 4,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in August compared to this time last year, there is growth in other parts of the local economy.

"I think the longer term is to keep applying the things that got us here, the talented workforce, the innovative aspects of our smaller and mid-size manufacturers, and our continued expansion of the education and health care sector that really helps bring dollars to this community much like manufacturing used to. "

The other speaker at the meeting, Mark Peterson of Greater Rochester Enterprise, says he is encouraged by the fact that not only are out of town companies still expressing interest in moving here, there are also a number of local companies interested in expanding.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.