When Martin Luther (the originator of the Protestant Reformation), in the early 1500s, wrote that any honest vocation is pleasing to God, one has a glimpse of what is known as the “Protestant work ethic.”

A job brings some independence from parents to a high school graduate or college graduate. A job allows one to support oneself and then a family. A job instills a sense of discipline and self-worth.

Unfortunately, Chautauqua County’s employment has fallen from 64,000 to 50,000 in just the past 15 years or so. (Prior to 2010, Chautauqua County had a remarkably stable employment figure of around 64,000 for many years).

In 1972, the Chautauqua County Legislature asked the State to create the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency. State law gave Chautauqua County government the power to appoint every member of its Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency.

The County, in 1972, stepped forward and wisely made itself the governmental entity to lead economic development for the entire County. It was unrealistic to have multiple Industrial Development Agencies for towns or the cities of Dunkirk and Jamestown.

With leadership, however, comes responsibility and accountability.

Halfway through the County’s budget year, the County Executive is asking the County Legislature to amend the 2026 County Budget by adding $2,800,000 to the “Safety Net” administered by our County Social Services Department.

The “Safety Net” is primarily for welfare recipients who have exhausted their benefits under the 1996 “Welfare reform” or “welfare to Work” initiative. The formal name of the historic 1996 law is the “Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.”

The 1996 welfare reform resulted from a Democratic President, Bill Clinton, and a Republican Congress. Bill Clinton, in his 1992 campaign for President, promised to “end welfare as we know it.”

The Act had 2 new requirements; first, it required welfare recipients to engage in work activities within 2 years of receiving benefits or face termination of assistance, and second, it places a 5-year lifetime limit on federally funded welfare assistance.

Locally, back in the 1990s, there were more “Welfare to Work” opportunities than there are now (despite all the “help wanted” signs in 2026 largely resulting from a collapse of the County’s Labor Force from 68,000 20 years ago to about 54,000 now).

Bush Industries, for example, at one time had 1,000 employees and our County’s “Welfare to Work” program could send welfare recipients to Bush to be put on the packing line.

Today there is no Bush Industries with its 230 employees at the end, no Serta Mattress with its 100 jobs, no Truck Lite with its 350 jobs, no Jamestown Metal with its 100 jobs, 79 jobs recently gone at Monofrax (leaving just 59 jobs for now), no Carriage House (the former Red Wing) in Fredonia with its 500 jobs and no Petri Baking in Sliver Creek with its 200 jobs.

These job losses total at least 1,500 “family-sustaining” jobs.

The only answer to Chautauqua County’s bottom-of-the-barrel economic ranking among New York’s 57 counties, is the attraction of new jobs.

The over $400,000,000 investment by Cummins and Wells (the former Dunkirk Ice Cream) may create 200 new jobs at Cummins and 270 jobs at Wells.

In the South County, the arrival of the Canadian company, Electrovaya, may create 100 jobs and in the North County, the new pharmaceutical plant may create 100 jobs.

Obviously, the possibility of a total of 670 new jobs in Chautauqua County does not offset the 1,500 jobs lost in recent years.

What are the answers to our employment decline from 64,000 to 50,000?

One answer is for the County and its CCIDA to make a long-term commitment to the creation of new industrial/business parks, especially in the Greater Jamestown Area and the Dunkirk-Fredonia area, where the bulk of our population lives. If we have no place for new businesses to locate, obviously they will not come here.

Another answer is for the County and its CCIDA to spend at least as much money on job-training programs as they do on public relations and marketing.

In the 2025 and 2026 budgets for both the County and its CCIDA, not a dime was budgeted for job training (possibly by contract with JCC).

Many of the 1,500 or so displaced workers in recent years could benefit from the opportunity to develop new skills that would be attractive to new as well as existing businesses and industry here.

In the aftermath of the demise of Jamestown Business College, it would be well for the County and its CCIDA to help provide some of the job training JBC did for over 100 years.

No one claims that private sector job creation in Chautauqua County is easy. The fact that attracting new business and jobs to our County is hard work should not be a reason to give excuses instead of results.

County government, 54 years ago, wisely took on the role of being responsible for economic development for the entire County. Let it now lead with determination and resources to have more jobs for everyone, from new high school grads, to new college grads, to those who should be supporting themselves rather than being dependent on the “Safety Net.”

Fred Larson is a graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs; Yale Law School, was a private practice lawyer for 38 years, is a retired Jamestown City Court judge and a current Chautauqua County legislator.