Photo Courtesy of State Comptroller DiNapoli
New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli
By Forum Staff
Jobs in New York City’s technology sector grew over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, while most other economic sectors suffered job losses, according to a report released Wednesday by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. The report found that tech sector employment in New York City increased by 33.6% (43,430 jobs) from 2016 to 2021 to reach a record high of 172,570 jobs. The city’s private sector lost 3.3% of jobs during this same period.
While other industries struggled, New York City’s tech sector expanded during the COVID pandemic as people became more reliant on technology during the lockdowns and the shift to working from home. As total private sector employment declined by 12.6% (494,810 jobs) in 2020, the tech sector grew by 9.4% (14,340 jobs), the largest growth since 2012.
Amid the pandemic, tech jobs also grew in other “nontech” businesses (such as in retail trade) that employ tech workers like software developers or computer programmers. When combined with the jobs in nontech sectors, the city had a total of 281,100 tech jobs in 2021, 58% higher than in 2011.
Where Are the Jobs: Nearly 90% (150,400) of the tech sector jobs in the city were located in Manhattan, followed by 7.6% (13,160 jobs) in Brooklyn, where the borough saw tech employment increase by 42.6% from 2016 to 2021. Tech industry jobs increased slightly in Queens and declined in the Bronx and Staten Island.
- Subsectors: Computer systems design is the largest subsector of tech in New York City, accounting for almost 40% of tech sector employment in 2021. The fastest growing tech subsector in the past five years was software publishers, including app developers, whose employment more than quadrupled.
- Who Works in the Sector: With an average age of 38, New York City’s tech sector has one of the youngest workforces when compared to the average of 41 years in the rest of the private sector. Workers in the tech sector are also overwhelmingly college educated. However, the sector is less diverse than the rest of the city’s private sector workforce. In 2020, over half (54%) of tech workers identified as White or Caucasian, much higher than the share of 40% among all other workers. Less than 29% of tech workers were women, a much lower share than the rest of the overall workforce share of 47%.
- High Pay: In 2021, the average salary in tech reached $228,620, almost double the average ($117,810) of the total private sector in New York City. The average salary in tech had the second largest growth in the past five years out of all sectors with over 2,000 employees.
- Impact on Real Estate: By 2020, technology, advertising, media and information business firms accounted for one-quarter of total real estate leasing in the city, a rate that more than doubled since 1990. Fears of an economic recession have slowed tech leasing in the first eight months of 2022.
While the pandemic provided a significant boost to the tech sector, rapid growth experienced in 2020 began to slow nationwide and locally in 2021, a trend that has continued in 2022, DiNapoli said. As firms navigate challenges amid a looming recession, the city must continue to monitor trends in tech employment to understand the future direction of the sector and its occupations.
