Having people available to work is one of the challenges for companies in Chautauqua County.

That sentiment was shared during the legislature’s Planning and Economic Development Committee meeting during a presentation by the county Industrial Development Agency.

Mark Geise, the chief executive officer of the county IDA, noted that Chautauqua County, like the majority of counties in Upstate New York, has lost population. With the drop in population, there’s fewer people available for companies to hire.

“It’s very challenging for us to get companies to come here without a large workforce,” he said.

Geise said population loss is a common issue in this area of the country.

“It’s not a Chautauqua County issue alone. It’s statewide and throughout the northeast,” he said.

Along with population loss, Geise said the cost of doing business in Chautauqua County can be a challenge for industries, in part because of the state business climate.

“New York state ranked number one in the overall tax burden for a state. It’s second in income tax and fifth in property tax. Chautauqua County ranks in the top 15% highest median property taxes,” he said.

Geise also said that across the nation, New York is the second most regulated state.

“Growth in regulations indirectly correlates with slower economic growth, increased poverty rates, lost jobs and higher inflation,” he said.

Rich Dixon with the county IDA discussed a study by Cornell University regarding population loss.

The study, Dixon said, speculates that New York state could lose 2 million people in the next 25 years, a 13% decline.

The study cited three main factors: Lower fertility rates, the aging population is dying, and more people are moving out of the state than relocating to New York.

After the presentation, Legislator Fred Larson, D-Jamestown, said the population loss over the last 20 years has hit Chautauqua County harder than other counties.

“The facts behind our population decline in Chautauqua County: from 2000 to 2020, percentage-wise and actual numbers, (we were) one of the top declines of the 62 counties in New York,” he said.

Larson noted that about 15 years ago population loss really hit the workforce hard.

“The number of employed persons from Chautauqua County, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, fell off a cliff beginning in 2010,” he said.

The population loss, Larson noted, began to impact the labor force.

“The number of employed persons had been pretty steady at around 66,000 for a long time in this county, ups and downs of recessions and whatnot notwithstanding. It fell off a cliff to where we’re about 54,000 employed – 12,000 fewer than 15 years ago,” he said.

Larson called on the county’s Planning Department, which Geise oversees, to figure out what caused the population loss.

“Young people, young families obviously left here. The Planning Department can study this and give us a good report before the end of the year,” he said.