A think tank’s report states that the State University of New York system generates 2,177 jobs in Chautauqua County, which pay a total of $127.2 million in wages.

The Fiscal Policy Institute’s study found that SUNY provides 4.9% of the jobs in the county, accounting for 5.8% of wages.

Statewide, SUNY provides 179,000 jobs, or 4.7% of all jobs and 5% of all wages, in counties with one or more of its institutions.

Cortland County is where SUNY provides the highest percentage of jobs, 24%, for a total of 4,041. It provides $254 million in pay there, for 29% of all wages earned.

Chautauqua County has more than two times the population of Cortland County, 126,807 to 46,311, according to Census Bureau statistics. However, SUNY Cortland has more full-time students than Jamestown Community College and SUNY Fredonia combined. SUNY Cortland has 5,905 full-timers and SUNY Fredonia has 3,236. Stats for JCC are skewed in this context by the fact that about half its student population are part-timers, but the school reports around 3,700 students total at all three of its branches, which include one in Cattaraugus County.

The SUNY system backs more than $1 billion in wages in three more sizable counties: Erie, Onondaga and Suffolk.