New York has added 425,000 jobs in the last five years, but this time without the help of Wall Street. Instead, technology firms and other startups have been largely responsible for the latest boom.
While big investment banks and brokerage firms widely contributed to job growth in the 1990s, those have contributed less than 1 percent of jobs, according to the New York Times. Much of the growth is happening at quickly expanding internet companies such as Google, Facebook and BuzzFeed, according to the newspaper.
These companies, as well as many other TAMI tenants, have been seeking office space in Midtown South, Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. Facebook signed a lease to add 80,000 square feet at Vornado Realty Trust’s 770 Broadway. Twitter could already be looking for additional office space, before moving into its new headquarters on West 17th Street. BuzzFeed recently inked a lease to take up nearly 200,000 square feet at 225 Park Avenue South.
Ronnie Lowenstein, the director of the city’s Independent Budget Office, told the newspaper that it’s a “different kind of boom” than last time.
“It isn’t ‘Bonfire of the Vanities,'” she told the Times. “It’s a wide variety of firms in different industries that are contributing to a more diversified job growth.” [NYT] — Claire Moses