Most new jobs in low wage sectors

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The good news: Buffalo Niagara is adding jobs at a faster clip than it has in a long time, albeit at a slower pace than the nation as a whole.

The bad news: three-quarters of these new jobs are in sectors that generally don’t pay well. The biggest job creator across the region is restaurants and bars.

The problems don’t end there: There’s been precious little growth in middle-income jobs and the region is actually losing technology jobs that tend to pay well and spin off a lot of business activity.

Experts say the biggest economic challenge facing the region is our stagnant, aging population. It’s tough to grow an economy if your base of workers and customers isn’t growing.

The package of stories at aired Thursday and Friday on WGRZ piggyback off a series published in March by Investigative Post done in collaboration with ProPublica and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. That series showed job growth upstate under Cuomo is one-quarter the national average, despite massive government subsidies.