But when the film giant decided to make single-use cameras in Mexico and China instead of Rochester during the summer, she found herself out of work.

"I'm 50, on my own, and my health insurance is about to run out,'' said Archetko, a Rochester resident who used to make about $600 a week from Kodak. "They took my job. China took my job away from me, and I'm an American."

But while Kodak found it too expensive to keep making the cameras in New York, resulting in the loss of about 500 jobs, its bitter rival, Fuji Film Inc., still makes them in the small South Carolina city of Greenwood, a former textile center not far from the Georgia border that is trying to remake itself as a high-tech manufacturing mecca.

Although global economic forces rather than New York business policy shaped Kodak's decision, the jarring comparison between the Kodak and Fuji single-use camera factories illustrates what has been happening in New York for decades: The state is losing manufacturing jobs at a more drastic rate than anywhere else in the country.

That was underscored last week when Kodak announced it planned to cut another 12,000 to 15,000 jobs -- almost a quarter of its work force -- over the next three years, as its film business continues to fade.

The trend has led to hardship for thousands of New Yorkers like Archetko, who have seen their economic security suddenly dashed.

Meanwhile, the Fuji plant is providing steady paychecks for people in South Carolina.

Todd Dalton, 38, is a Greenwood native who used to work at a textile factory. When it closed three years ago, he was hired as a supervisor in the Fuji camera plant, one of eight plants in the Japanese firm's complex on the outskirts of town.

"It worked out well for me that the job opened up just as my old plant was closing,'' Dalton said one day in the fall while taking a break at the plant.

"It allowed me to stay in my hometown and still make a good living,'' said the married father of one.

Kodak officials insist that their decision to ship the 500 jobs overseas had little to do with the cost of doing business in New York. But the company's top manufacturing official also said that the state's climate is not as good as that in other states where the company does business, and that New York regulations can present a problem.

In South Carolina, conversely, the state goes to extraordinary lengths to lure and keep manufacturers — even, in the case of Fuji, spending about $1 million in taxpayer money to send hundreds of workers back to Japan for six weeks of training. The state picks up the tab for air fare, hotels and all other expenses.

"It seems like a lot of money going out the door, but payback is well-paying, stable jobs,'' Fuji spokesman Craig White said.

New York has no comparable program.

© 2004, Gannett News Service