‘Work’ it, baby! NYC in jobs boom
New York City’s economy is booming, with 702,200 jobs added between 2009 and 2017 — the longest economic expansion in more than 70 years, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Thursday.
“New York City is undergoing the largest and longest expansion since World War II,” DiNapoli said. “Employment is at a record level and more jobs are being created in the boroughs outside of Manhattan than ever before.”
Employment in the city has increased by 18.9 percent since the recession, pushing the total number of jobs to an unprecedented 4.4 million in 2017. That breaks the pre-recession record by more than 600,000 jobs.
The city’s success accounts for nearly three-quarters of the state’s 11.5 percent job gain over the past eight years.
Although job growth slowed in each of the past three years, the city still posted a solid gain of 72,700 jobs last year.
The securities industry remains a driving force for the city’s economy, but its contribution to job growth has been modest in recent years, DiNapoli said.
Health care, technology, media and business services — as well as tourism-related industries, like restaurants — have fueled the expansion to record jobs numbers, DiNapoli said.
Unemployment fell to its lowest level in 41 years last March, when it was at just 4 percent.
It has risen slightly to 4.3 percent, but it’s still far below the 10.2 percent unemployment rate that the city saw when the job market bottomed out in October 2009.
Brooklyn had the fastest rate of private-sector job growth at 38 percent, followed by Queens at 24 percent, Manhattan at 20, The Bronx at 15 and Staten Island at 14.
Ten neighborhoods experienced growth that exceeded 40 percent: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Borough Park, Flatbush, Sheepshead Bay/ Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Coney Island, Williamsburg/Greenpoint, and Bay Ridge in Brooklyn; Howard Beach/South Ozone Park in Queens; and Central Harlem in Manhattan.
No neighborhood in the city lost jobs between 2009 and 2017.
DiNapoli’s upbeat assessment contrasted with a more downbeat report issued earlier this month by city Comptroller Scott Stringer.
That report pointed out that the number of new private-sector jobs created in 2017 was down more than 10,000 from 2016.
“The weakness in employment growth should serve as a reminder that the robust rate of job creation in the city over the last several years won’t continue forever,” Stringer said at the time.
“We will continue to monitor the economy’s condition closely, but this quarter’s results highlight the need for prudence in the management of our finances.”