Project
Northeast
Regional
Workforce Development

Empire State Regional Workforce Development Strategies

November 10, 2023

The Challenge

With businesses across New York State facing a substantial headwind in finding and retaining qualified workers, Empire State Development initiated a statewide effort to establish data-driven and stakeholder-informed workforce plans. Using input from job seeker and employer surveys, Department of Labor data, stakeholder interviews, and industry research, each of the state’s 10 Regional Economic Development Councils (REDC) were charged with developing sector-specific workforce development strategies to address the critical issues facing their priority clusters.

The Solution

Camoin Associates was hired to complete regional workforce development strategies for four of the state’s REDCs: Mohawk Valley, Finger Lakes, Capital Region, and North Country. The project team analyzed the current environment of the region to estimate the workforce, training, and skills gaps within each tradable cluster. Data, combined with significant stakeholder engagement, lead to the development of actionable workforce development strategies. The sectors included in the strategies were Advanced Manufacturing, Agribusiness, BioTech and Life Sciences, Clean and Renewable Energy, Finance and Insurance, and IT, Software and Electronics.

The Impact

The work was completed throughout the late summer and early fall of 2022 and has resulted in workforce development strategies that address regional issues as well as sector-specific challenges. A number of the strategies identified through this effort have since received funding from Empire State Development and other organizations for implementation.