At one point in the city's not-so-distant past, it seemed as if every Rochesterian knew somebody who worked for Kodak. Rush hour hit three times a day as shifts started and ended, and local products were the pride of the community. This, after all, was the city that classified Fuji as a dirty, four-letter word.

In 1982, Kodak employed more than 60,000 people locally. That number today is 9,200. And the total number of manufacturing jobs in the Greater Rochester area dropped by 30 percent between 1975 and 2000 and by another 25 percent from 2000 to 2007, says Stephen Mitchell, dean of Work Force Development, Continuing Education, and Lifelong Learning at Sullivan County Community College.

Manufacturing hasn't disappeared locally; three of the region's top 10 employers are manufacturing-based companies, says Tammy Marino of the state labor department. Those companies need employees, as do thousands of other businesses in the region. And there are plenty of opportunities locally to get retrained, transition to a new field, or get a college degree that can mean the difference between keeping a job or becoming another statistic in the local employment reports. Monroe Community College alone, for instance, offers 85 degree or certificate programs.

If you hope to get a manufacturing job, Mitchell cautions that while the number of those jobs has gone down, the skills required have gone up, due to technology and changes in the structure of manufacturing. Training agencies and academic institutions such as Monroe Community College or BOCES provide courses on the necessary skills.

"The bigger problem seems to be getting a new generation of workers interested in manufacturing," says Mitchell. "Having seen the downsizing and read all the press about manufacturing going offshore, young people are wary of going into manufacturing." This is despite the significantly higher pay usually found in manufacturing. According to the state labor department statistics for the second quarter of 2007, the average worker in the manufacturing sector made $1,110 per week compared to the average of $771 for all workers.

Jobs in the technical trades - including machinists and maintenance mechanics - are both among the most competitive and the hardest to fill, locally and nationally, says Mitchell. Recent technological advances have rendered many of these jobs obsolete - or have greatly reduced the number of people required to complete the same output.

For those jobs, says Marino, you need to update your math and technology skills to be competitive. Many of the jobs traditionally considered labor intensive - machinist, auto mechanic - have become computer based. That means fewer workers are needed. Those who stay current with technology advances will have an easier time moving from job to job.

Here, too, there's plenty of help available. MCC, for instance, offers an associates-degree program called "Apprentice Training: Machine Trades." It's possible to complete that program (which has courses in math and machine shop theory as well as hands-on work in labs) in less than two years.

Only 20 percent of advanced manufacturing jobs require a bachelor's degree or higher, according to the state labor department.

In other careers: Labor department statistics suggest that jobs in fields based on science, technology, engineering, and math are expected to grow at a higher rate than other jobs in the area in the coming years. Referred to as STEM careers, these jobs include engineering, biotechnology, information technology, and the health-care industry. Barbara S. Mitrano, director of the TRiO Student Support Services Program at SUNY Brockport, says she sees most of the adult students at the college studying for degrees in these areas - most commonly with majors in business, computer science, and nursing.

STEM jobs, on average, pay well, and the highest paying workers are often those with the highest level of education or specialization. Many colleges and universities not only offer degree programs in these areas, but also have programs to help adult students return to college for training in these areas. RIT, for instance, has a program called PREP (professional re-employment program). According to Joseph Nairn, senior associate director of part-time and graduate enrollment at RIT, returning students who were downsized, laid off, or otherwise lost their job through no fault of their own can receive a 60 percent discount on their first year's tuition through this program.

Also in demand in the Rochester area: nurses, dental assistants, physical-therapy assistants, computer systems analysts, and data-base administrators, says Marino. Only 17 percent of the jobs in the health-care field require a bachelor degree or higher. MCC, along with several other local colleges, offers degree programs in both nursing and dental hygiene. Both can be completed in two years.

According to Jose Perales, director of transfer and pharmacy admissions at St. John Fisher College, the admissions office at the college works closely with MCC to provide transfer students a seamless transition into higher degree programs - going from an associates-degree RN to a bachelor of science in nursing, for instance. The extra schooling provides greater upward mobility in the industry, says Perales.

Jonathan Burdick, dean of admissions and financial aid at the University of Rochester, says the university is finding that after several years of practice in the field as an RN, nurses are coming to the UR to earn a bachelor of science degree in nursing. And the UR offers an accelerated program for non-nurses who have a college degree and want to enter the nursing field.

Teachers, teaching assistants, and other educational support staff will continue to grow in this region, says Marino. Nazareth College, SUNY Brockport, and the University of Rochester's Warner School offer teacher-certification programs as well as graduate programs in education.

Among the professions that have been welcoming adults who are seeking a career change is the ministry, and Rochester's higher-education institutions include Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. The school offers programs for clergy, for students hoping to enter the ministry, and for laypeople (a fall evening program focuses on world religions). The school's special focuses include programs designed especially for the black church and its clergy.

In the outlying counties around Rochester, agriculture jobs are available, but the requirements for those jobs have changed, too. "Gone are the days of manually milking cows, though," says Marino. Instead, computerized equipment now measures how much milk each cow is putting out, so technological know-how is needed here, too.

"Technology has changed how we do work," said Marino. And workers who stay current with the technology in a given field are more competitive in the region's changing work environment.