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Capital Region

Location

The eight-county Capital Region might be called the hub of upstate New York. Home to Albany, the State capital, and historic Saratoga, it is the link between New York City, Boston, Montreal, and central New York. Its topography encompasses sections of the fertile Hudson and Mohawk River Valleys, as well as portions of the State's two major mountain ranges, the Adirondacks and the Catskills.

Weather

Mean Daily Temperature:
  January 21.5° F
  July 72.0° F

Workforce

                 

Business and Industry

As home to the state capital, Albany, government has historically been the leading source of jobs in the Capital Region. Recently, the service sector has overtaken that role, boosted by the region's growth as a vacation destination showcasing major attractions such as Lake George, Saratoga Springs and the Catskills.

Manufacturing accounts for close to 10 percent of all non-farm jobs in the region, with General Electric Company (GE) a major employer. The region is also one of the State's premier high technology centers, with such world-class research institutions as Albany Medical Center, GE Corporate Research and Development, Knolls Atomic Power Lab and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, among others.

Transportation

Highways: Three major interstate highways - the New York State Thruway (I-87/I-90), the Adirondack Northway (I-87) and I-88 - serve all parts of the region.

Air Service: A number of major national airlines and regional commuters provide air service at the newly expanded Albany International Airport; other smaller airports service outlying areas.

Rail Service: Amtrak provides railway passenger service in all directions.

Bus Service: The Capital District Transportation Authority serves a four-county metropolitan area, while a half-dozen private commuter service lines provide local and long-distance service.

Higher Education Institutions

More than 66,000 students are enrolled in the area's four-year and two-year colleges and universities. Below are the major institutions, with those offering teacher education programs in bold.

Adirondack Community College
Albany College of Pharmacy
Albany Law School
Albany Medical College
College of Saint Rose
Columbia-Greene Community College
Hudson Valley Community College
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Sage Colleges
Schenectady County Community College
Siena College
Skidmore College
SUNY at Albany
SUNY Empire State College
Union College

Health Care-major hospitals

Albany Medical Center, Albany
VA Hospital, Albany
St. Peter's Hospital, Albany
Samaritan Hospital, Troy
Glens Falls Hospital, Glens Falls
Memorial Hospital, Albany
Ellis Hospital, Schenectady

Quality of Life

A variety of cultural and recreational offerings make the Capital Region a highly desirable place in which to live and work. Sports fans enjoy a variety of professional and collegiate sporting events, or take to the outdoors for water sports, golfing, hiking or skiing. Saratoga offers the nation's oldest and most prestigious thoroughbred racetrack and a trotting track, along with the summer home of the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Information obtained from numerous New York State sources.