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Adding fuel to the fire: Trump’s diesel deal stokes European concerns
The U.S.-Russia agreement is leading to deepening worries for Europe about the long-term future of its partnership with America.
Anthony Scaramucci on his book and why he thinks these ‘catastrophic’ decisions led to the rise of Trump
Senator Murray launches working group to shield US public health from political influence
CPD investigating more than 20 overnight business burglaries, most on NW Side
Recap: Sporting KC falls at league leaders Nashville SC
Sporting Kansas City (6-19-4, 22 pts.) fell to a 4-0 defeat against Supporters’ Shield leaders Nashville SC (19-3-6, 63 pts.) at GEODIS Park on Wednesday night. Nashville took a three-goal lead into the halftime interval before adding a fourth in second-half stoppage time to seal the points. Balancing three games
Braden Smith’s Return Could Be Just as Important as Marvin Harrison Jr. for Texans in London
Clearwater moves ahead with negotiations to turn The Landings golf course into sports complex
Connection Needed: Mammoth Owner Ryan Smith Unveils New Salt Lake City Entertainment District
WATCH LIVE: Rep. Begich faces challenger Hill in a debate for Alaska’s at-large House seat
Stoneham businesses struggling amid downtown construction project: "significant drop in customers"
"Ridiculously expensive": Massachusetts computer repair shop seeing uptick in business as costs rise
Brookline computer repair shop seeing uptick in business as prices for parts soar
Warriors' Kristaps Porziņģis will remain out indefinitely due to 'health-related matter' but will be around team
The 540: Interview with Nashville Entertainment Executive and Roanoke Music Icon Chris Keaton
Top U.S. banks dropped customers over political and religious views, regulator says
Ubisoft plans cuts at German studios, adding to wave of workforce reductions
Ubisoft is planning to reduce its workforce in Germany, where it operates a trio of studios, by about 100 workers, Game File has learned. The company wants to offer employees buyouts to, should enough people accept, avoid having to lay anyone off. “In Germany, we initiated discussions with the Works Council last week regarding a proposed voluntary departure plan across Ubisoft Dusseldorf, Ubisoft Berlin & Ubisoft Mainz,” a company rep told Game File. A “works council” is a union-like group representing employees. “The voluntary plan is the primary measure being proposed to support the intended organizational changes,” the Ubisoft rep added. The company declined to confirm the scale of the potential headcount cut. Of the impacted studios, Mainz might be the best known to the public. It leads development of the Anno series and shipped the well-reviewed strategy game Anno 117: Pax Romana in November 2025. Berlin and Dusseldorf operate as support studios within Ubisoft’s creative network. Berlin recently supported the development of Rainbow Six Siege and the Rayman Legends Retold remake. Dusseldorf also contributed to those projects, as well as The Settlers and Ubisoft-branded escape rooms. Dusseldorf is the biggest of the three studios, with some 400+ workers, compared to just over 100 at the other two, a source familiar with the reductions and the teams told Game File. More than half of these new reductions of about 100 people are expected to happen at Dusseldorf. The planned cuts were announced at a town hall for the German studios on Tuesday of last week. In an email follow-up, the studio group’s managing director, Benedikt Grindel, said the cuts were intended to “best position our German studios for the future... with a clearer focus on their role, capabilities and organizational setup needed for the work ahead.” The email was an echo of the past. In January 2025, Grindel had emailed the Ubisoft developers in his region (or studio “zone”) to explain that a round of 185 cuts at the time, including about 65 at Dusseldorf, were “essential to improve our operational efficiency and ensure the long-term sustainability of our studios, the zone and the company.” A half-decade of continued job cuts Ubisoft has been aggressively cutting its headcount for years. At the end of September 2022, it had 20,729 workers. By the end of March 2026, that total was down to 16,590. Studio management is trying to trim costs as it grapples with a changing industry and a drought of releases, let alone hits. The company announced earlier this year that it had reduced its costs since 2022 by “nearly €325 million” ($362m) and planned to lower them through 2028 by another €180 million ($200m). In June the company said it was closing down its Winnipeg and Belgrade studios and cutting roles in its Barcelona team. Even commercial and creative success hasn’t spared studios from this ongoing company-wide contraction. As Game File was nailing down details around the proposed cuts in Germany, Ubisoft management was informing workers of cuts in its Singapore studio, which shipped a hit remake of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag this past July. Some 70 positions in Singapore are being eliminated “to align the studio with upcoming production needs,” per a company rep’s statement to Game File. In early 2024, a large team in the Singapore studio launched the multiplayer pirate game Skull & Bones. It performed poorly but has been supported with regular content updates since. Many of Ubisoft’s studios around the world are heavily subsidized via regional grants and tax breaks. Singapore had been among them for years, but received no such local assistance in the 12 months ending this past March. News of the Singapore cuts broke today alongside word that Ubisoft is also proposing the closure of RedLynx, pending negotiations with officials. The Finnish studio behind the motorbike series Trials was founded in 2000 and sold to Ubisoft in 2011. As reported by VGC (and corroborated by Game File), Ubisoft management told employees it could not come up with a new, sustainable assignment for RedLynx. The 2025 workforce at Ubisoft Dusseldorf were straight-up cuts. This time, Ubisoft is hoping the reductions at its trio of German studios will largely come from workers taking a payout to leave. The company offered such voluntary dismissals at its Massive Entertainment studio (The Division) a year ago. For the German studios’ buyouts this time around, Ubisoft and the Works Council had discussed a formula that’d pay a worker’s monthly salary multiplied by 1.5 and by the number of years they’ve worked at the company, according to Game File sources. The formula is still subject to negotiations with the Works Council and has not yet been part of an official offer to workers. It could be adjusted up or down, and it could be supplemented with additional bonuses. Asked about the floated payout formula, a Ubisoft rep told Game File, “The terms of a potential voluntary departure program remain subject to negotiation with employee representatives. No final agreement has been reached, and we won’t comment on specific proposals while discussions are ongoing.” Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: Epic’s AI adventures Epic Games (Fortnite, the Unreal engine) is all-in on using AI to try to transform the way it makes video games and game-making tools. It’s leaders appear to be undeterred by any resistance among gamers and some game developers around generative AI—and instead emboldened by advances, particularly in AI-assisted programming. A recap of the last three days: On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Epic management told workers last week that development of an upcoming game combining Star Wars and Marvel characters would be “AI first.” Employees would be expected to use AI models such as Claude to code the game. A manager told Epic’s developers there would be “[n]o more hand-written code” and that art for the game would be “generated with full AI workflows,” per the outlet. Just ahead of that story running, Epic founder Tim Sweeney tweeted: “We have a huge pivot underway here at Epic, moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration. The aim isn’t to do the same stuff with fewer people, but to enable everyone here to build MORE and BETTER stuff, and to bring the benefits to all teams using Unreal.” In a follow-up, Sweeney predicted that most game development processes would be at least three times faster a year from now than they were in January 2026, thanks to AI. To a person on X who told him he was failing to read the room, Sweeney said: “Much of the room wants it to be 2016 again, but it’s not. Our job, as the provider of tools and technology to much of the industry, is to design for the present that is and the future that will soon be.” On Wednesday, Epic announced it was releasing a faster launcher for its Epic Games Store marketplace. It did so by stating in a blog post as clear as could be that the launcher is an AI-enabled, vibe-coded project: Programming is hard. So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look. Programming is hard? That was unexpected phrasing from a company founded by a legendarily great programmer. Back in 2011, Sweeney told me that he’d picked up programming quickly as a kid and rejoiced at the power it gave him. “I could look at any program that anybody else had written and, with enough effort, build something cooler.” Item 3: The Xbox Labs experiment (and one of the people behind it) Microsoft’s Xbox division, which is flooding the zone with announcements lately, yesterday revealed a new internal tech-tinkering team called Xbox Labs. In the words of Xbox boss Asha Sharma Labs is “a small group of game makers, engineers and scientists whose job is to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience.” Conventional wisdom coming out of the announcement is that Labs is a team that’ll focus on ideas driven by generative AI. In her announcement, Sharma cited some of the dizzying achievements in tech and gaming over the past month as AI agents and other AI tools have been deployed to swiftly figure out how popular games work, then rebuild them and mix them up. She mentioned seeing ”games rapidly decompiled and rebuilt to run on hardware they were never originally designed to support” and said “[p]erhaps more surprisingly, we’ve seen many of the biggest games in the world have been remixed into the source code of another.” (Minecraft plus Elden Ring, for example, or Fortnite + Super Monkey Ball + Overwatch + Diablo + others.) Sharma also cited the work of Windows PC games being ported to run in browsers, a seeming reference to a recent AI-assisted fan port of Halo. Or perhaps Call of Duty or GTA. Sharma didn’t use the specific term “AI” in her memo, but she came close, citing AI “agents” and their potential for game-making tools that Labs could help craft: I think XBOX has an important role to play here. Coding became the first major workload for agents because they can write, run, and test software. Games share many of those same properties, and people spend more than 72 billion hours a year playing XBOX games, roughly five times the estimated time spent writing code worldwide. We’ve spent 25 years learning how to make great games, and I want our game makers to help shape what these new technologies make possible. As we learn, we’ll share the tools we build with developers across the industry, just as we always have. When I asked an Xbox rep if Labs was an AI-centric team, they said genAI was not the focus, describing it as having a broader mandate for using new tech in new ways in gaming. As an example, they pointed to Xbox’s recently launched disc-to-digital gaming usage rights program. Microsoft didn’t specifically name anyone involved full-time in Xbox Labs yesterday, but on social media and LinkedIn, I spotted Adrian Mato IDing himself as leading the creatio of tools at Labs and talking up the launch. Mato first caught my attention in late September, when he said on X that he was “starting to build a new team at Xbox focused on products and tools for how games get built and distributed as agentic tools become more capable.” At the time, he framed AI-based tools as a supplement to traditional game dev tools. “I don’t think we need to replace them,” he said. Since then, he’s publicly shown interest in AI and in games. He’s recently spent some of his X feed marveling at the power of AI agents and praising the lighting in the latest Gears of War. Following the Labs announcement yesterday, he enthused about the Xbox Labs’ stylish landing page. He wrote: “We built some fun tools to art-direct shaders in real time, experimented with interactive ASCII art, and sprinkled in lots of tiny details. “Move your mouse to leave a colorful trail that reveals the original footage, or interact with the video to trigger bursts of particles. “A lot of love went into making it all feel just right. “More to come”
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Valkyries reach record $100M in annual revenue as world's most valuable women's sports franchise
The Valkyries have become the first professional women's sports team to generate $100 million in annual revenue, adding another milestone to their second season that has drawn sold-out crowds and helped make the franchise, nearing a $1 billion valuation, the most valuable team in women's sports.
Rush University System and Endeavor Health announce merger, would create largest health system in Ch
'Even in politics, there are limits': Amcha Israel candidate resigns amid harassment campaign
Lexington Health adding new emergency departments in Columbia, White Knoll
The health system said population growth in the Midlands is spurring the need for more emergency and urgent care facilities
Watch the trailer for ‘The Greatest,’ the Muhammad Ali series coming to Prime Video November 4
Apple says beloved MacBook is now ‘obsolete,’ more products too
Apple has updated its list of vintage and obsolete products, adding the final model of the beloved 12-inch MacBook to the “obsolete” list.
Terry Bradshaw hints at retirement, says his time as an NFL analyst is 'coming to an end'
ON THE JOB: ‘Where Do You See Your Career or Business in 3 to 5 Years?’
“For the next three to five years, I am looking to grow Oswego County Opportunities’ support for the county’s economic development to fight poverty and take advantage of the major investments that are coming to the area.” — Kevin Dean, Executive director, Oswego County Opportunities, Fulton “I love what I’m doing. I’m trying to do this as long as they let me. It’s so exciting to walk the floors at the various factories, talk with community leaders and be part of the solutions to their business problems. As we do this work with manufacturers and community members, we are helping the next generation have these great jobs in skilled manufacturing. I’d like to have the same job title for years to come. I’ve watched the last five years with awe and it makes me proud and excited to be from Upstate New York. I want to keep being part of the conversation that, yes, we can do it in Upstate New York.” — Randy Wolken, President and CEO, Manufacturing Association of Central New York (MACNY) “I oversee the Rochester and Syracuse offices. We’re seeing continual growth as there are more and more job seekers and companies that are looking to fill positions as the economy grows. I’d like to have another Upstate New York office in our region to help promote people under me. I want to see that happen. With an increase in the job market, that is what the end goal is here for sure. We currently have offices in Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany, among more than 300 worldwide.” — Briana Calabrese, Marketing director and vice president of finance & accounting and administrative & customer support, Robert Half Recruiters & Employment Agency, Syracuse “Hopefully, we’ll continue to grow by word of mouth. I just took over a couple of years ago. I was an employee for 27 years. Business is great and we’re up on sales from where we were last year and I’m hoping that continues to happen. I get an overwhelming response from people who say they want to support local businesses. It’s my objective when people walk out the door that they want to come back. In a small town like this, it’s crucial. I see myself in five years doing exactly what I’m doing now: sticking with it and trying to grow Fulton Screen Printing.” — Tim Stone, Owner, Fulton Screen Printing, Fulton “I am 85 years old and teach four fitness classes a week and swim four times a week. I hope to live to be 90 — if I can do that, I won’t complain. The older I get, the less afraid I am of dying. What I don’t want to do is get some sickness where I’m lingering and I’m in pain and it just goes on and on. I expect to be exercising as much as I can and I hope I will know when I need to back off to accommodate different problems I may have when I’m older. For a short time, I got up at 6 a.m. to jog for a half hour every morning. But I had to avoid dogs, so I quit jogging. I hope to be able to swim for life. When I swim for half an hour, whatever problems I have wash away. I will still be working in exercise in five years. I also write research articles. It challenges my mind. You have to challenge your mind and body and have some kind of goals and reasons to go on living. My wife died three and a half years ago, so I try to go out and do things, even though she’s no longer here.” — Fred Wilson. Certified personal trainer at Fitness After 50 and leader of senior fitness classes, Syracuse “I expect to continue working as a local financial adviser professional for the next several years. I really enjoy working with my clients and consider it a privilege to come to work every day, helping my clients reach their financial goals.” — Randy L. Zeigler, Certified financial planner practitioner, chartered financial consultant and private wealth adviser, Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC, Oswego “I see myself doing something with young people. I want to open an after-school program as a safe space for high schoolers where they can get tutored, behavioral health, get something to eat. I want to do something with policy. I have thought of doing something with neurodivergent kids where kids can run some kind of business. I want to do anything with community like therapy and psychotherapy. I want to still be able to offer those services to people. At 55, I’m not sure how much I will do. I will see what happens after graduation from Keuka College.” — Della Joyce Smith, Master’s student, Syracuse “I think the core of the gym is in personal training. I don’t see that changing. People will still need a gym and personal training will stay. There may be some loss to AI as there is in just about every industry, but there’s always been the ability to go online and get a workout. I don’t think AI will cut into business any more than the internet has. I think the class structure is shifting. Large group classes might be fading away for a while. I see more people going to specialized classes like Pilates. I wouldn’t be surprised if maybe the traditional classes like boot camps started to fade away. It’s important to adapt. Maybe someday I’ll need to get some new kinds of classes. Everything tends to go in cycles.” — Ryan Vollmer, Certified personal trainer and owner Edge Strength and Conditioning, Syracuse “I have been growing my firm at 24% a year. In five years, we may be purchasing or building a new office building to accommodate the new growth. Right now, our focus is on growth and adding team members, mostly financial advisers and administrative staff.” — Terri Krueger, Chartered financial consultant and senior financial adviser with Orla Wealth Management in Syracuse “Over the next three to five years, I see TDO continuing to experience steady, sustainable growth as new industries establish and expand their presence across Central New York. These investments will create new opportunities throughout the regional manufacturing supply chain, and TDO will continue evolving our capabilities to help both existing manufacturers and emerging industries grow, compete, and succeed.” — Jim D’Agostino, CEO and executive director Central New York TDO (Train, Develop, Optimize), Liverpool
BUSINESS UPDATE: A 138-year-old New York Manufacturer Gets Another Life in Fulton
E.J. Willis Co. was founded in New York City in 1888 and for generations it has made ship’s bells and other equipment for the U.S. Navy and American shipbuilders. This summer, the new owner moved the company’s equipment to Fulton By Stefan Yablonski E. J. Willis Co. cast brass ship’s bells — handcrafted in the United States since 1888. Ship bells, “built to last a lifetime at sea,” are now manufactured in Fulton. E.J. Willis Co. has moved its operation and manufacturing business to Fulton. They are currently operating out of N.E.T & Die. The company is now under the ownership of Jonathan Hyatt. He recently acquired the company after seeing a for sale note on Craigslist. [caption id=attachment_11110 align=alignright width=400] Entrepreneur Jonathan Hyatt is the new owner of E.J. Willis Co. He bought the business this summer after finding a listing on Craigslist by chance.[/caption] “I had been looking for something to do. I had been 20 years in corporate America and I was just tired of building someone else’s empire, you know what I mean? I was in consulting, pretty much a jack of all trades. I wanted to do something that I could call my own,” he explained. “I’d been on this path of trying to find a business to buy for about a year. One night I am on Craigslist about 11:30 in mid-April searching for something completely unrelated. At the bottom of Craigslist was a ‘things you might be interested in from outside of your area.’ There was an ad that said 138-year-old bell manufacturing company for sale. So, I clicked; why not, right? I wasn’t looking to buy a manufacturing company, but I went down the rabbit hole, absolutely fell in love with the history and ended up buying it.” He read the ad and responded. “I called and I am talking to the owner of the business for about two hours. We ended with, let’s have another chat and then come on out here and have a look. I figured, well I might wind up getting kidnapped and getting murdered or there is a real business here. But I gotta see it through,” he quipped. “And sure enough, there is a big machine shop operation there. The gentleman who owned it was retiring and in the corner of this shop is a little room where they make bells and they have been doing this ever since the company had started.” That’s the one constant thing that has survived the changes of the business. [caption id=attachment_11061 align=alignright width=300] Sales 1929 general catalog published by E. J. Willis Co, listing all the merchandise it sold. It’s like the Sears Roebuck and Co. catalog for marine parts.[/caption] “I drove home and told my wife, ‘This is what I am doing for the rest of whatever we are calling this — mid-life crisis.’ And she said, ‘absolutely you got to do it.’ I took out a loan and off we go.” He put in an offer on the business and they closed on July 1. He didn’t disclose what he paid for the company. “In terms of price, the seller and I have agreed to keep those terms private.” “I am finding that I am a business owner, an archeologist, opening files and cabinets that haven’t been opened in 100 years. It’s just amazing, just cool things that I am finding,” he said. “I want to build the business back. I want to be able to sell the bells to outsiders. I think they are beautiful. “It’s really a wild story about a company that started in lower Manhattan, exploded in the automotive space, sold parts to the Wright Brothers, moved into the aeronautical world and then landed in marine. The cool thing, I have been digging around and the gentleman who owned the company prior to me was not a digital guy. There is nothing out there. “Now I am sitting here with all the art from like the 1930s, the E.J. Willis boat catalog it’s like 250 pages of things this company used to make. It’s like the Sears-Roebuck and Co. catalog for marine parts. We are modernizing, we are staying true to the heritage of the business. It’s exciting to be the next steward of the whole business.” Initially he thought he’d move everything from the company’s plant in Middleville, Herkimer County, to Boston, out of convenience. “Then I thought let’s keep the foundry where it is. Let’s not move anything right away,” he said. “I want to get a good sense of what we’ve got, what works and what doesn’t. “I went to the foundry and met with the people there, lovely people, and said here is my position — I am buying a company where everyone is retiring. There is machining and polishing to be done, who would you work with around here? Without hesitation they said, ‘you need to go to NET Tool & Die and talk to Michelle [Shatrau]. She is a third-generation machinist and she runs the company now.’” So, he drove to Fulton. “I knocked on the door, they let me in. And she said, ‘how’d you get in here?’” he said with a laugh. “We became fast friends. I told her what I am doing. It must have struck a nerve. She has a very entrepreneurial background. I must have said something right because she came out and she said, ‘I’d love to help you. Why don’t we move the equipment that you have into my large building and I will give you a space to work at and use my team?’” [caption id=attachment_11058 align=alignleft width=300] Bell in progress awaiting assembly[/caption] It’s a great relationship so far. “We are bringing the business into the modern world. It’s been a lot of stuff all at once. But it has been very exciting,” he said. “We moved in a month ago [in July]. We closed on the business July 1. We moved a couple weeks later. We had all our equipment set up, electrical being run, everything. [caption id=attachment_11059 align=alignright width=300] Bell attached to a lathe going through the machining process[/caption] “We’re working with NET Tool & Die to rebuild production and preserve manufacturing processes that, in some cases, existed mostly in the heads and hands of the people who had been doing them for decades. We’re currently working on several 200-pound ship’s bells and bringing an old two-way manual bilge pump back into production.” He said he will be working with NET employees for the time being, adding, “I’d love to get to a point where I have so much growth that I need to hire people.” No one wakes up and says, ‘I am buying a bell today,’ Hyatt admitted. [caption id=attachment_11060 align=alignleft width=225] Bell after receiving a custom etching toward the bell mouth[/caption] “Everyone does wake up and has things that deserve acknowledgment and remembering — a promotion, a marriage, the birth of a child,” he said. “These are the things I feel like if there was something that could capture a particular moment in time and will literally outlast the person that bought it, a bell is that. We can engrave a bell if you get married or the birth of a child. We can put anything on a bell. “I have orders, yes. I am working on several orders right now. We have a little bit of busyness. But there are still some things to work out. I want to make things consistently and continue to move forward.”
BUSINESS UPDATE: Port Perseveres Despite Tariffs’ Negative Impact
‘We are hanging tough ... in an environment that is incredibly difficult to do business in right now,” the port’s director says By Stefan Yablonski Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have hurt the Port of Oswego by slashing Canadian aluminum cargo volumes and reducing revenue. “We’re doing good. We are hanging tough. It is a tough time for our line of business in general, you know with these tariffs and the amount of Canadian aluminum that we see through our docks,” said the new executive director, Tom Drumm. “Compared to 2025, we are doing exceedingly well in traffic coming in; not necessarily the volumes we were seeing, but yeah we are hanging tough in an environment that is incredibly difficult to do business in right now.” “I don’t know where people get these numbers to be honest. We have never publicly stated how much our revenue is down or up or left to right. We don’t have a strong sense of those revenue numbers until the shipping season really closes up. We won’t have an accurate picture of the revenue standpoint until after the shipping season, typically in late November,” he added. “What I can tell you is several of our Canadian vessels that carry the aluminum cells — the volume of aluminum on those vessels we have seen decreasing. That is attributed to a few factors. One is where Novelis is in in their restart process. Novelis is rocking and rolling right now. They are starting to pull a lot of aluminum from the port of Oswego, the aluminum that they roll down into coils. “Another factor plainly is the tariffs. Canadian aluminum is tariffed at 50%. So, on those vessels we are seeing lower numbers than we would like. We’d like to see vessels carrying roughly 10,000 metric tons of aluminum. Over the course of this year, we have seen more in the range of 4,000 to 6,000. “Every piece of that aluminum that we receive here by vessel at the port is from Canada and is subsequently hit with the 50% tariff. It directly affects us because we’ve received less volume than we would traditionally see pre-tariff times.” When the port receives less aluminum from those vessels it means less hours for the ILA (International Longshoremen Association) as far as folks that work on the dock, he said. When cargo declines, it affects everyone, fewer hours for longshoremen, fewer loads for truck drivers, fewer rail shipments and less business for local suppliers. “Outside of the aluminum that comes in by vessel, the port topped out at having roughly 4,600 aluminum ingots stored on site at the port. That project had never been done before. The port of Oswego had never had that many of those size ingots in our yard,” he said. “It has been a busy summer for the ILA. Would we like to see more work for them? Sure. They are working all those barges when they come in, but as opposed to working 15 hours they might be working seven or eight hours. It hasn’t been a distinct decline in ILA hours. There has been plenty of work to keep our guys busy throughout the summer.” More salt “We just brought salt back to the port in several, several years. Around Harborfest time at one point we had a salt barge here with about 24,000 metric tons of rock salt and we had an aluminum barge here the same week. We had close to 40 men working,” he said. “Yeah, the other products definitely keep us busy. The salt project was a massive project, one that we are proud of. I’ve got 24,000 metric tons of salt on site that has to go somewhere — that’s going to be another project.” It is important for the port to continue to look at different products, different commodities to try to diversify some of its revenue, he said, adding, “We have done a pretty good job of that in my first five months here … particularly with the rock salt we have on site right now. It is important to continue to try to stand out and work through some projects outside our usual business. I enjoy it. It is a challenge every single day we put our head down and we try our best.”
A Major Labor Boom in CNY? Not Here Yet
With so many major projects going on — Micron, I-81 viaduct and others — job growth is predicted to increase. But so far the number of jobs in the region has declined By Aaron Gifford [caption id=attachment_11065 align=alignright width=350] Amy Stage, deputy director at the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY): “For us, the conversation isn’t just about filling jobs. It’s about creating sustainable pathways that help people see a future for themselves in manufacturing.”[/caption] The I-81 viaduct project in Syracuse and Micron facility construction in Clay are expected to create a major labor boom for Central New York. But for the time being, the number of jobs here has actually decreased in the past year. The New York State Department of Labor reported that, for the annual comparison of June 2025 to this past June, private sector jobs decreased by 2,200 or less than 1% to 260,000. Job gains were concentrated in leisure and hospitality (+700), private education and health services (+400) and other services (+300). Job losses for that annual period were reported in the areas of trade, transportation and utilities (-1,500); professional and business services (-1,000); financial activities (-500); mining, logging and construction (-300); manufacturing (-200); and information (-100). The public sector job count rose over 12 months, with most growth concentrated in education, the state Department of Labor reported. Looking ahead, the Central New York economy is expected to benefit from both the Micron and I-81 viaduct projects over a period of several years. Initial job growth is foreseen in construction and computer and electronic manufacturing. Spin-off jobs will be created in the areas of professional and business services, health care and education, the state Department of Labor said in an email response to Oswego County Business magazine. “Population growth tied to the buildout of Micron Technology semiconductor complex in Clay is also expected to bring more workers and residents to the region, increasing demand for transportation services,” the agency said. New York Department of Labor highlighted current or projected job growth trends in various sectors. An increase in defense-related contracts at local high-tech employers has continued to support employment growth in the computer and electronic product manufacturing sector and Micron is expected to generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs as the project progresses. This sector paid an annual average wage of $117,500 in 2025 and employment in the sector is projected to grow by over 60% through 2032, making it the fastest-growing industry in the region. Typical occupations in this industry include electrical, electronic and electromechanical assemblers, software developers and industrial engineers, the state agency reported. Specialty trade contractors include several different types of tradespeople — electricians, plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) mechanics and installers. Many of these positions are trained through apprenticeships, the state Department of Labor reported. The Interstate 81 construction project is generating local jobs, including construction laborers, projected to grow at a 6.4% rate, and operating engineers and other construction equipment operators, projected to grow at a 7.3% rate over the next several years. Construction of the Micron Technology facility is also “creating thousands of job opportunities that will continue over the next two decades,” the state agency reported. The specialty trade contractors sector paid an annual average wage of $86,200 in 2025. For Central New York, the challenge isn’t creating jobs, it’s filling them. Amy Stage, a deputy director at the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY), said meeting this unprecedented growth is a much larger task than just replacing retirees. “We’re seeing workforce gaps at every experience level,” she said. “Companies need entry-level employees, experienced technicians, supervisors, engineers and skilled trades professionals. The opportunity is tremendous, but we need more people entering these career pathways.” Employers are looking for people who can troubleshoot, read technical information, use computers and learn new processes, not just perform repetitive production work, Stage said. To address this demand, the MACNY created the Manufacturers Talent Institute, which aims to connect students and job seekers with meaningful career pathways while helping employers build their workforce. Twenty-one companies have so far signed up to provide opportunities for more than 800 students. “For us, the conversation isn’t just about filling jobs,” Stage said. “It’s about creating sustainable pathways that help people see a future for themselves in manufacturing.” Several manufacturing facilities in the region are in the midst of expansion: • TTM Technologies, a leading U.S. manufacturer of advanced electronics and interconnect solutions for aerospace, defense and high-technology markets, which has a plant in DeWitt, completed its buildout of an additional facility, adding 400 jobs and expanding production of high-tech circuit boards for defense and critical electronics applications. • In Cortlandville, the Byrne Hollow Crossing Plant, a dairy manufacturing and processing facility, is increasing its operations, creating 100 new jobs. • The Chobani yogurt company is building a 1.4-million square foot dairy processing facility in Oneida County. This will create more than 1,000 good-paying jobs and double Chobani’s New York state workforce, Stage said. Stage noted several ways that local, state and federal governments can help spur manufacturing job growth in this region. Elected leaders and public agencies could work with industry representatives to create pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship programs seeking to upskill workers and improve employee retention. New York state has a variety of grants, tax incentives and financing programs to support site preparation, infrastructure, workforce development and capital investment. The U.S. Department of Labor has a pay-for-performance incentive program that provides employers $3,500 per new apprentice hired and retained for 90 days. MACNY was previously awarded an $87,000 federal grant that will cover 25 apprentices at nine companies. The manufacturing skills gap in the United States, at its current rate, could result in 2.1 million unfilled jobs by 2030, according to a study by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute. In New York state, that gap is on pace to exceed 100,000 unfilled positions within six years. Manufacturing companies will be counting on more women to help fill that gap. While women make up half of the overall U.S. workforce, they only account for 29% of the manufacturing workforce in this country, Stage said. “Pre-apprenticeship programs like Real Life Rosies help to bring awareness to the manufacturing industry to fill some of the gaps, but we have a long way to go and it starts with educating people at younger ages about careers in manufacturing and earn-and-learn opportunities,” she said. As for Micron, that $100 billion-plus project, considered the largest private investment in New York state history, is expected to eventually create up to 50,000 jobs throughout the region, factoring in the spin-off opportunities for construction and supply chains. The plant’s foundation was poured on July 9. “As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, data and memory are foundational to the modern economy — and Micron is increasing our U.S. investments to more than $250 billion through 2035 to meet that moment,” the company’s president and CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, said in a news release. Bechtel, Micon’s construction partner in the project, reported that 4,500 people will be employed to help build the facility, including skilled craft professionals, local union members representing various trades and apprentices. The Syracuse-based CenterState CEO organization tallies the regional labor force at 397,582 workers (Onondaga, Cayuga, Cortland, Madison and Oswego counties). Job growth isn’t limited to the Central New York region. For the larger area covering portions of the Mohawk Valley, the North Country, the Southern tier, and the western part of the state, there are 155,601 employees in the advanced manufacturing sector, and 155,275 construction workers. The agency’s 2026 Economic Forecast report noted that 41% of community and business leaders surveyed said a shortage of skilled workers in this area remains a problem, though 77% shared a positive economic outlook for the year ahead. Beyond the semiconductor and advanced manufacturing areas, local business leaders also see growth in small manufacturing companies, storage businesses, housing, unmanned flight technology and general construction. “Productive reuse of property,” the report said, “will hopefully continue to preserve unique architecture while driving business.” The report identified several challenges for economic growth in the region, including an aging workforce, outdated equipment, the rising cost of raw materials and “the disconnect between the speed of business needs and the pace of talent readiness.”