Jobs & Economy in Rochester
Rochester's economy tells a genuinely single-defining story more than almost any other market in this project: Eastman Kodak's real, dramatic collapse from a ~62,000-person local employment peak to roughly 7,100 today, replaced by the University of Rochester/UR Medicine (Monroe County's largest employer overall, ~27,000 employees) and RIT as genuine anchors, alongside a real, distinct, and currently thriving optics/photonics cluster that grew directly from the Kodak/Xerox engineering legacy.
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Learn moreKodak: A Real, Honest, and Dramatic Decline This Record States Plainly
Kodak's Rochester-area employment peaked at approximately 62,000 workers (worldwide employment peaked at 60,400 in 1982); today, the company employs approximately 7,100 people in the Rochester area, and its entire current WORLDWIDE workforce (approximately 3,504 as of March 2026) is smaller than its former Rochester-area headcount alone once was. This record states that scale of decline plainly rather than softening it -- while also disclosing precisely that Kodak has NOT disappeared: the company remains real, current, and headquartered at Eastman Business Park (a 1,200-acre campus at 1669 Lake Avenue), where it continues to invest (a real $20 million manufacturing facility was slated for 2026 production) and hire, at a scale radically smaller than its historic peak.
Xerox: Founded in Rochester, But No Longer Headquartered There
Xerox was genuinely founded in Rochester (as the Haloid Company) and long headquartered there -- but this record verifies precisely, rather than assumes, that Xerox's OFFICIAL corporate headquarters has since relocated to Norwalk, Connecticut (201 Merritt 7). The historic Xerox Tower in downtown Rochester has been redeveloped and renamed Innovation Square; Xerox still maintains a real, if much reduced, workforce presence in the Rochester area.
The University of Rochester and RIT: Real, Current Replacement Anchors
The University of Rochester (including UR Medicine/URMC) is Monroe County's largest employer overall and largest PRIVATE employer specifically, at approximately 27,000 total employees -- a real, current, and significant replacement anchor for the local economy Kodak and Xerox once dominated. Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a real, separate second major higher-education anchor, with approximately 17,100 students and approximately 4,200 combined academic/administrative staff.
A Real, Distinct Optics/Photonics Cluster Grew Directly From the Kodak/Xerox Legacy
More than 150 specialized optics/photonics firms operate along the I-390/I-490 corridor between Canandaigua and downtown Rochester, generating over $3.2 billion in annual sector output -- a real, current, and genuinely distinct piece of Rochester's economic identity, not a nostalgic footnote. The labor market for this specialty ran genuinely tight in 2026: senior optical-engineer unemployment ran below 1.5%, fed by the University of Rochester's own Institute of Optics (80-100 optics undergraduates and 30-40 PhDs annually) and RIT's Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science (over 200 relevant graduates per year).
A Real, Disclosed Broader Economic Softness
Against this real institutional and cluster strength, this record discloses the real, ongoing broader economic softness plainly: MSA-level unemployment ran 3.9% in April 2026 (up from 4.0% a year earlier), median household income ran approximately $46,587-$47,213 depending on source -- both real, disclosed figures running below state and national averages -- and nonfarm payroll growth ran essentially flat (+0.1% year-over-year) through Q1 2026.
Key takeaways
- Kodak's Rochester-area employment collapsed from a real ~62,000-person peak to roughly 7,100 today -- a dramatic, honestly disclosed decline -- though the company remains real, current, and headquartered at Eastman Business Park.
- Xerox was founded in Rochester but its official headquarters has since relocated to Norwalk, Connecticut -- verified precisely rather than assumed unchanged.
- The University of Rochester/UR Medicine (Monroe County's largest employer, ~27,000 employees) and RIT (~17,100 students) are real, current replacement economic anchors.
- A real, distinct optics/photonics cluster (150+ firms, $3.2B+ annual output) grew directly from the Kodak/Xerox engineering legacy and ran a genuinely tight 2026 labor market (senior engineer unemployment below 1.5%).
- Broader MSA economic indicators remain real and soft: unemployment ~3.9-4.2%, median household income ~$46,587-$47,213, and essentially flat nonfarm payroll growth.
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