Working Close To Home?

There is no correlation between whether you live in a city, town or a village depending on your job, experts say.

During the 2010 census, five-year estimates were calculated that indicate percentages of people in different job sectors living in the county compared to living in the state. Also, there were estimates done to figure out how many people were employed in different job sectors for each municipality in the county.

For instance, the three largest job sectors in Chautauqua County by percentage include: education services, health care and social assistance, which employs 28 percent of the county; manufacturing, which has 17.2 percent of workers; and the retail trade sector, which has 11.2 percent of laborers.

The three largest job sectors in the state by percentage include: education services, health care and social assistance, which employs 26.6 percent; professional, scientific, management, and administrative and waste management services, which has 10.8 percent of workers; and retail trade, which has 10.6 percent of laborers.

In both the county and in the state, education services, health care and social assistance was the leading employer and retail trade was the third largest job sector. However, the county and state are not close when it comes to the second largest employer. For the county, manufacturing is the second largest employer while this job sector ranks sixth in the state. The county has a 10 percent higher manufacturing employment rate than the state with 17.2 percent.

Bill Daly, county industrial development director, said this figure is not surprising because manufacturing has always been an important employer in Chautauqua County. The biggest change historically is that now, manufacturing employs more people living outside the county's cities.

''We have a very large and strong industrial manufacturing base. We've always had that,'' he said. ''We have a very healthy and very active manufacturing industry. That is no shock. We've always known that.''

As for the state's No. 2 employer, professional, scientific, management, and administrative and waste management services, which employs 10.8 percent of workers, in Chautauqua County it is only the fifth-largest job sector at 5.2 percent.

Daly said there is a large difference between the state and the county in this job sector because most of the workers live in large populated areas, like New York City, Buffalo or Rochester.

''Administrative service employees seem to gravitate toward larger cities,'' Daly said.

However, when it comes to determining why people decided to live in a city, town or village based on what they do for a living, Daly said there is no explanation.

''It is just where people work and live. There is no rhyme or reason,'' he said.

John Slenker, state Labor Department spokesperson, agreed with Daly that there is no way to determine which municipality people will live in depending on what they do for a living.

''As far as there being a way to predict where someone chooses to live depending on where they work, it is not possible,'' he said.

Slenker did say the more money a person makes will affect how far they are willing to travel to their job.

''The distance you community is directly correlated to how much money you make,'' he said. ''If you make $100 an hour, you are willing to commute father than if you make $10 an hour.''

Slenker said once a person starts to make more money doing their job, the more likely it is they will move closer to work.

''Think about Manhattan. It's incredibly expensive to live there. One who works there, might not start out living there and commute an hour or two each day,'' he said. ''However, the more successful they get, the more likely they will move there to be closer to work. This way their commute is only blocks away. There comes a point where your time becomes so valuable to you that you spend the money to move closer.''

For more information, go to factfinder2.census.gov.