SUNY: AN ECONOMIC ENGINE
OF NEW YORK
T h e F i s c a l P o l i c y I n s t i t u t e
A n d r e w P e r r y , S e n i o r P o l i c y A n a l y s t
P r e p a r e d b y :
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 4
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The State University of New York (SUNY) system is responsible for
nearly 180,000 good jobs throughout New York State, which make up
nearly 5 percent of total jobs in counties where a SUNY school is
located. This report examines the economic impact of the SUNY
system in terms of the number of jobs created (directly and
indirectly), the wage share of those jobs, and the regional location of
those jobs.
The SUNY system itself employs 63,400 New Yorkers. This amounts to
1.7 percent of all jobs in the counties that are home to a SUNY
institution. The wages created directly by the SUNY system are also
above average for their respective counties, with an average SUNY
employee wage of $84,200. This is 22 percent higher than the overall
average wage of $69,200 in counties with a SUNY institution. These
wages represent 2 percent of total wages in counties with a SUNY
institution.
SUNY institutions boost their local economies, creating additional
jobs in industries that serve campuses (for instance, food vendors and
textbook sellers) and businesses patronized by employees and
students. In total, the SUNY system is responsible for 115,500 of these
“indirect” jobs throughout New York State, which would not exist in
the absence of a local SUNY institution.
Taken together, the SUNY system’s 179,000 directly and indirectly
supported jobs account for 4.7 percent of all jobs and 4.9 percent of
wages in counties that host a SUNY institution.
Statewide Employment
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Figure 1. Direct and indirect SUNY jobs by county
The SUNY system creates jobs throughout the state, with the largest number
of jobs created in those counties that host a SUNY University Center.
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The SUNY system is an economic engine in both large, urban counties as well
as smaller rural counties.
The highest numbers of SUNY-supported jobs are in the four counties with
one of the University Centers (University of Buffalo in Erie County,
Binghamton University in Broome County, University at Albany in Albany
County, and SUNY Stony Brook in Suffolk County). SUNY is also a major
employer in Onondaga County, which is home to multiple SUNY institutions,
including Upstate Medical Center and the School of Environmental Science
and Forestry. Together, these regions counties account for over 135,000 jobs
created by the SUNY system. Binghamton University (in Broome County) and
the SUNY institutions in Onandaga County are responsible for over 10 percent
of all jobs in those counties, and a slightly larger share of total wages in those
counties due to the above-average wages paid by SUNY institutions.
However, the counties in which SUNY has the greatest economic footprint
relative to the rest of the size of the local economy tend to be smaller, more
rural counties that are home to the system’s comprehensive colleges. SUNY
supports nearly one-quarter (23.8 percent) of jobs in Cortland County, home
to SUNY Cortland – the highest share of any county. Similarly, SUNY supports
10 to 15 percent of all jobs in Otsego County (home to SUNY Oneonta),
Livingston County (SUNY Geneseo), and Oswego County (SUNY Oswego).
The SUNY institutions in these smaller, more rural counties tend to also
support a disproportionate share of total wages, as SUNY jobs tend to be
better paid. In Cortland County, for instance, where SUNY supports 23.8
percent of all jobs, those jobs are responsible for 29.3 percent of all wages.
The Importance of SUNY Schools to Local Economies
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Figure 2. Share of all jobs created by SUNY, by county
The SUNY system is particularly important to the local economy in many rural counties.
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Conclusion
In addition to providing high-quality, affordable post-secondary education, the SUNY
system is an important job creator throughout the state. Because the SUNY system
pays above-average wages and consists of many campuses spread throughout many
different regions of New York State, SUNY schools are an essential part of both the
state’s economy as a whole and many different local economies.
As an engine of economic development in New York State, the SUNY system provides
benefits beyond its role as an anchor for local economies across the State. Public
universities in the U.S. are engines of social mobility, supporting students from low
and moderate income families to earn higher incomes as adults. This is especially true
and New York, and several SUNY institutions are among the leading higher education
institutions for furthering social mobility, according to research from economist Raj
Chetty. For students of all backgrounds, college educated workers tend to earn
higher wages than non-college educated workers – a gap that has increased in recent
decades.
By equipping students, especially those from low and moderate income background
who may not otherwise have pursued post-secondary education, with a college
degree, the SUNY system supports high lifetime wages for its graduates. These higher
wages generate a persistent return on investment for the State’s economy. A study
from the Rockefeller Institute estimated that each $1 of state investment into the
SUNY system generated an economic return of $8.17. This estimate eclipses the
employment multipliers used in this analysis, which capture the effect of SUNY-
created jobs, but not the value of a more educated workforce. While SUNY institutions
serve as the anchor of local economies across the State – from smaller counties, like
Cortland, to cities, like Syracuse – their collective economic impact educating New
Yorkers is even larger.
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County
Direct Jobs
Indirect jobs
Total jobs
SUNY share of all
jobs
Cortland County
1,433
2,608
4,041
23.8%
Otsego County
1,122
2,042
3,164
15.4%
Livingston County
957
1,742
2,699
14.0%
Broome County
3,498
6,366
9,864
12.4%
Oswego County
1,226
2,231
3,457
11.0%
Onondaga County
9,584
17,443
27,027
10.9%
Suffolk County
19,522
35,530
55,052
8.5%
Erie County
11,368
20,690
32,058
6.8%
Ulster County
1,381
2,513
3,894
6.6%
Clinton County
675
1,229
1,904
6.6%
Albany County
4,453
8,104
12,557
5.3%
Chautauqua County
772
1,405
2,177
4.9%
St. Lawrence County
517
941
1,458
4.6%
Wayne County
196
357
553
2.1%
Monroe County
2,600
4,732
7,332
1.9%
Nassau County
2,115
3,849
5,964
0.9%
Saratoga County
289
526
815
0.9%
Jefferson County
109
198
307
0.9%
Westchester County
1,130
2,057
3,187
0.8%
Oneida County
278
506
784
0.8%
Tompkins County
113
206
319
0.7%
Orange County
101
184
285
0.2%
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Table 1. Jobs supported by the SUNY system by county
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County
Direct wages
Indirect wages
Total wages
SUNY share of all
wages
Cortland County
$ 120.9
$ 133.1
$ 254.0
29.3%
Otsego County
$ 100.3
$ 113.2
$ 213.6
18.7%
Livingston County
$ 78.4
$ 86.0
$ 164.4
17.3%
Broome County
$ 292.3
$ 367.0
$ 659.3
14.3%
Oswego County
$ 102.2
$ 134.1
$ 236.3
12.5%
Onondaga County
$ 808.4
$ 1,082.6
$ 1,890.9
12.2%
Suffolk County
$ 1,735.6
$ 2,568.4
$ 4,304.0
9.2%
Erie County
$ 936.4
$ 1,309.2
$ 2,245.6
7.5%
Ulster County
$ 123.3
$ 142.1
$ 265.3
8.0%
Clinton County
$ 57.6
$ 63.5
$ 121.2
8.1%
Albany County
$ 377.0
$ 576.0
$ 953.0
5.6%
Chautauqua County
$ 58.5
$ 68.6
$ 127.2
5.8%
St. Lawrence County
$ 43.4
$ 49.8
$ 93.2
5.5%
Wayne County
$ 8.9
$ 19.2
$ 28.0
1.9%
Monroe County
$ 171.6
$ 294.1
$ 465.7
1.9%
Nassau County
$ 169.6
$ 289.4
$ 458.9
1.0%
Saratoga County
$ 18.4
$ 34.7
$ 53.0
0.9%
Jefferson County
$ 3.9
$ 10.0
$ 13.9
0.8%
Westchester County
$ 105.0
$ 199.1
$ 304.1
0.8%
Oneida County
$ 17.5
$ 27.8
$ 45.3
0.8%
Tompkins County
$ 5.1
$ 12.0
$ 17.0
0.6%
Orange County
$ 5.7
$ 10.7
$ 16.4
0.2%
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Table 2. Wages supported by the SUNY system by county
(in millions of US dollars)
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End Notes.
[1] FPI analysis of U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI), 2022 data. Because QWI data
does not differentiate among public higher education institutions, this analysis excludes New York City
from all estimates. While New York City does host SUNY institutions, these institutions’ local footprints are
far smaller than the City University of New York (CUNY) system.
Similarly, QWI data does not differentiate between public community colleges and four-year colleges and
universities. Employment data for community colleges may be affected by an undercounting of adjunct
professors. Adjunct professors are generally entitled to unemployment insurance (UI), and should
therefore be included in QWI data, which records the number of employees covered by UI at the
beginning of each quarter. Because adjunct employment is often intermittent, it may be undercounted.
This would especially affect community colleges, which rely more heavily on adjunct instructors.
Potential employment undercounts for community colleges are especially relevant to the four counties in
this dataset with only community colleges, and no four-year colleges or universities: Orange County
(Orange County Community College); Wayne County (which is home to a satellite campus of Finger Lakes
Community College); Tompkins County (Tompkins Cortland Community College; Cornell University’s
statutory colleges are not recorded as public employment in this data); and Jefferson County (Jefferson
Community College).
Further, it is worth noting that QWI data records workers by place of work, not place of residence.
[2] FPI analysis of QWI data. FPI uses employment multipliers published by the Economic Policy Institute
(EPI). Employment multipliers estimate the number of jobs created by the addition of jobs in a given
industry. Multipliers estimate “supplier jobs,” which are created as a result of industry linkages (e.g., a new
teaching job would create new demand in related sectors, such as academic publishing and facilities
management), and “induced jobs,” which are created as a result of greater economic demand (that is,
higher consumer spending associated with added jobs).
This analysis uses both supplier and induced jobs multipliers for the educational services industry.
For more on EPI’s multipliers, see: Josh Bivens, “Updated employment multipliers for the U.S. economy”
Economic Policy Institute (January 2019), https://www.epi.org/publication/updated-employment-
multipliers-for-the-u-s-economy/.
[3] Opportunity Insights, “Preferred Estimates of Access and Mobility Rates by College” (accessed March
2023), https://opportunityinsights.org/data/?topic=0&paper_id=536.
[4] David Autor, “Work of the Past, Work of the Futute” AEA Papers and Proceedings Vol. 109 (May 2019),
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20191110.
[5] Laura Schultz, “The Economic Impact of the State University of New York” Rockefeller Institute of
Government (November 2018), https://rockinst.org/issue-area/the-economic-impact-of-the-state-
university-of-new-york/.
