Tompkins County, NY jobs, unemployment and layoffs

Tompkins County’s unemployment rate is 4.4%. No layoff notices here in the last 12 months. 94 open professional jobs are in its cities.

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Tompkins County economy

  • 4.4%

    unemployment, Sep 2026

    4.1% the month before

  • 49,562

    in the labor force

    Source: BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics

  • 102,879

    people in Tompkins County

    Source: U.S. Census Bureau

  • $73,012

    median household income

    Source: Census ACS

  • 59%

    of workers in white-collar occupations

    Management, business, financial and professional; Census ACS

Where Tompkins County ranks

Where Tompkins County placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.

Tompkins County outlook: Cooling

Built from public Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census figures. It describes the area, not any one employer in it.

  • Private-sector jobs up 0.1% from 2022 to 2025
  • Population down 1.4% from 2020 to 2025
  • Unemployment 4.4%, up 0.3 points from a year ago
  • Sectors adding the most jobs: transportation & warehousing (+410 jobs)
  • Sectors losing the most jobs: manufacturing (−300 jobs)

Learn and get funded in Tompkins County

Tompkins County layoffs

No layoff notices naming Tompkins County in the last 12 months are on file. The WARN Act covers employers with 100 or more workers, so smaller layoffs are not in it.

All layoff notices in the state

Employers hiring most in Tompkins County

Employers with the most open professional roles in this county’s cities. The county is taken from each job’s city, so roles with no city are not counted.

  1. Ithaca College29 open roles
  2. Cornell University16 open roles
  3. Tompkins Bank & Trust9 open roles
  4. Top Echelon Network (recruiter member boards)3 open roles
  5. Arthur J. Gallagher2 open roles
  6. Brookdale Senior Living2 open roles
  7. Confidential2 open roles
  8. Food Management Search2 open roles
  9. Gallagher2 open roles
  10. Gallagher Bassett2 open roles

Largest employers headquartered in Tompkins County

Employee counts with a year are published figures (Wikidata). Other sizes are estimates from our company directory, not payroll counts.

Colleges in Tompkins County

Colleges in Tompkins County
CollegeCityTypeStudents
Cornell UniversityIthacaPrivate non-profit 4-year20,000+
Ithaca CollegeIthacaPrivate non-profit 4-year1,000–4,999

Workforce development and job centers

The public workforce board and American Job Centers serving Tompkins County. They offer free help with job search, training and filing for benefits.

Laid off in New York? How to file for unemployment in New York (steps, weekly amount and the appeal deadline).

  • Tompkins Workforce New York Career Center - Ithaca

    Ithaca · Comprehensive · 607-272-7570

    M-F: 8:30am - 4:30pm

Cities in Tompkins County

Other New York counties

All of New York

Laid off or looking for work in Tompkins County?

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See your options after a layoff

Sources: Census Bureau and BLS (county unemployment is not seasonally adjusted); layoff notices from New York’s published record; job counts from our live job board; IPEDS for colleges; CareerOneStop for workforce boards and job centers. New York unemployment benefits and severance rules.

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