From left, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Credit: New York Mayoral Photo Office/ Michael Appleton

NEW YORK CITY—The tech sector in New York City is booming and job growth in that sector here has firmly established New York State as the third largest and fastest growing tech market in the United States.

The tech sector has added 57,000 jobs statewide since the end of the Great Recession in 2009. According to a report released on Friday by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, more than 80% of those new tech jobs were located in New York City.

DiNapoli was joined by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in releasing the results of the New York City tech sector growth report at a tour of Maven, a Manhattan-based female founded digital health clinic for women.

New York State experienced 25.5% growth from 2010 to 2016 to 280,870 jobs in the tech sector, placing the Empire State behind California, which recorded 26.4% growth during the same time period to 882,470 tech jobs and the State of Texas, which grew by 21.1% in that time span to 404,750 jobs. Placing fourth is the State of Massachusetts, which enjoyed 16.4% growth in the tech industry from 2010-2016 to 235,900 jobs. Of the 10 states with the largest tech industries, New York State was among the three states where growth exceeded 25 percent during that time.

“New York City has become one of the most important tech hubs in the country,” said DiNapoli. “This industry has shown tremendous growth since 2010 and has become a large source of high-paying jobs while also creating new opportunities for workers with non-tech skills. The opening of the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island is an exciting example of the public and private sectors working together to support economic growth.”

“This report speaks volumes about how much we have grown but also to me validates the notion that what we do here in this city is just organically what the tech sector more and more is looking for, and that people are going to flock here and help us build here because of what has been achieved here in this city,” said Mayor de Blasio.

Employment in New York City's tech sector grew by 57% or 46,900 jobs during 2010-2016, while tech employment in the rest of the New York State increased by just 7% or by 10,200 jobs. Almost half of the tech job gains in New York City were concentrated in companies engaged in activities related to the Internet.

By 2014, the number of jobs in New York City's tech sector surpassed the peak reached in 2000 during the “dot-com” expansion. In 2016, the sector set a new employment record of 128,600 jobs in the city. This rapid expansion occurred while the city's traditional economic engine, the securities industry, was still struggling to fully recover from the 2008 financial crisis, the report states.

The number of tech firms increased by 23 percent during this period to reach 7,600. According to Built in NYC, a growing number of tech companies with more than 400 employees are located in New York City. These include AOL, BuzzFeed, Google, LinkedIn, Spotify, Twitter and Yelp. In addition, a number of tech companies are headquartered in New York City, including About.com, DoubleClick and Tumblr.

A total of 86% of New York City's tech jobs are located in Manhattan, with concentrations in Midtown, Midtown South and Downtown. Other clusters are located in Long Island City in Queens and Downtown Brooklyn, according to the report.

The number of jobs in the tech sector in Queens (6,000) grew by 11% since the end of the recession. However, the number of jobs in Brooklyn (9,200) increased by 2,900, or nearly half, over the six-year period ending in 2016.

A data point from brokerage firm JLL clearly indicates the sector's growing importance to the New York City economy as the tech sector accounted for 11.5% of office leasing in Manhattan between 2012 and 2016. The market share was more than double its share of the leasing pie during the previous five-year period.

The report also states that the number of tech firms in New York City reached 7,600 in 2016, an increase of 23% since 2010. Salaries in the tech sector are growing rapidly as well. The State Comptroller's report notes that tech salaries in New York City increased three times faster than the rest of the city's private sector between 2010-2016, reaching a record $147,300 by 2016.

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NYC's Tech Jobs Total Sets New Record, Exceeds Dot.com Boom

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