This is the second case study in the City Series, a 3-piece sequence produced by our sister organization, the Center for Workforce Inclusion (formerly Senior Service America), examining why some cities continuing to decline while others are thriving and actively preparing for the future of work.
For a significant portion of the 20th Century, Buffalo’s middle class was sustained by companies like Buffalo Forge, Curtiss-Wright, Bethlehem Steel, Republic Steel, the American Ship Building Company, and Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Buffalo was a titan of industry, providing grain, steel, and motors to America and the world.
As the 20th Century drew to a close, Buffalo, in common with other Manufacturing Belt cities, experienced a massive economic decline as the result of American deindustrialization. As the manufacturing base which supported the region’s economy began to shrink, joblessness soared. By 2005, as the Partnership for The Public Good noted, “the City of Buffalo had a poverty rate nearly double the U.S. average.”
By June 2019, the city of Buffalo had reduced its unemployment rate by half to 3.7%. They accomplished a 50% reduction in unemployment in less than a decade.
Our Founder & CEO, Gary A. Officer, visited Buffalo in 2019. Read his analysis and reflections on how Buffalo is successfully revitalizing its economy and the role of older workers in that revitalization.
