Despite an unemployment decline in 2016 and a rise in manufacturing for Utica and Central New York, New York has been declared one of the top ten worst states to make a living in today.

While manufacturing in New York state is expanding and unemployment rates continue to fall for the Central New York region, a gauge of hiring in industries shows that factories are cutting jobs and with the closing of many retail stores throughout the state it is no surprise that MoneyRates financial analysts have declared that New York state is the 7th worst state to make a living in today for 2016.

In previous years Forbes had ranked Utica as the 3rd worst city in the country for business development and careers. MoneyRates analysts evaluated each state based on Average wages, State tax rates, average cost of living, the state unemployment rate and incidents of workplace illness, injuries and fatalities.

The results of the study revealed that while New Yorkers receive above average pay on the whole but the average cost of living, state taxes and unemployment rates offset the benefit for New York making New York the 7th worst state to make a living in today.

New York lands with an average household income of $41,600 (a drop of more than $14,000 compared to 2015's $55,630) nearly $2,300 in state taxes and an unemployment rate of 4.8.

A top-10 median wage level looks good at first, until you find out that the cost of living in the state is second only to Hawaii's. Beyond that, the high tax burden will further erode the purchasing power of the money you earn.

-MoneyRates

The top ten best states to make a living in today consist of many states that made the list in the previous year.

  1. Wyoming
  2. Washington
  3. Virginia
  4. North Dakota
  5. Texas
  6. Ohio
  7. Michigan
  8. Colorado
  9. Illinois
  10. Minnesota

Most of the states were in positions on the list the previous year and due in large part to low unemployment rates and low or nonexistent state taxes. Now with the collapse of Nano Utica as the Austrian computer chip maker AG withdraws from the chip fab plant the prospects for 2017 in Central New York region do not look optimistic.


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