Through a case study of Rochester, New York's optics and imaging industry my dissertation examines regional sector specialization and firm labor market strategies deployed to retain corporate competitiveness. Using industry and occupational analysis as well as interviews, focus groups, and survey techniques, I investigate how labor markets and labor market institutions remake themselves in response to the systematic dismantling of the model of corporate paternalism that was once pervasive in the Rochester region. I argue that there is a contradiction between the need for firm specific skills and the desire for a flexible employment relationship that creates an increased dependence on the skills and capacity of the regional labor market. The question then is what are the implications of this increased dependence on the regional labor pool and how and in what ways are those implications either different from or the same as those of previous labor market strategies?