Erica Groshen, senior economic advisor with the Cornell ILR School and former commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, says while the labor market has been strong in the last few years, it could be leveling off.

Groshen said the strongest industries in terms of hiring over the last year are health, hospitality, transportation and government. According to New York State’s Department of Labor, over the last year, the industries with the highest percentage of growth in the state were natural resources and mining, private education and health services and hospitality.

Regarding incoming tariffs, Groshen said uncertainty can make companies more hesitant to hire.

“Industries like construction and manufacturing and some parts of the service sector are very cyclically sensitive. So probably those companies are holding off on hiring until they know what's going to happen with the impact of the tariffs. Then you have the sectors that have a lot of government contracting. Those have taken a big hit,” said Groshen. “So I think we're entering into a very cautious phase that, will mean that just hiring in general is slowing down. Maybe just briefly, but maybe longer term. The slowdowns in hiring come before layoffs, usually."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, federal government employment went down by 10,000 jobs in February.

According to the Department of Labor, over the last year, the state saw almost 2% job growth. Labor department statistics also show that last year in upstate New York, the Syracuse and Glens Falls metro areas were two regions that saw some of the fastest private sector job growth.