More New Yorkers are being hired to work in tech than any other industry, and the next-highest category is not all that close.
The city’s role as a global hub for tech talent is not a given, however, and there are two key challenges New York must overcome if the industry’s success here is to be sustained.
That’s according to a new report from Tech:NYC and the Center for an Urban Future, titled “Sustaining NYC’s Tech Edge.” Tech:NYC is a non-profit that acts as a booster for local tech firms. The Center for an Urban Future is a Manhattan-based think tank that has proven influential in New York City politics.
The report lauds the progress New York has made to become the country’s second-largest tech market. “(Tech) has also become New York’s largest — and most dependable — source of new middle- and high-wage jobs,” the report said.
Perhaps the most eye-catching statistic it cited is that employment in the city’s tech sector increased 64% over the last decade, or more than four times the growth of private sector jobs writ large.
In the decade leading up to 2024, tech created 79, 563 well-paying jobs while finance and insurance created 36,750 such positions, according to the analysis.
Tech-related jobs are also popping up all over other industries. “There are now more software developers in the city’s finance sector than bank tellers,” the report cited as an example.
It’s not just jobs. The city has more than doubled the number of tech startups headquartered within the five boroughs. New York is now home to more than 1,000 digital health startups and hundreds of other young firms in artificial intelligence, fintech, real estate and more.
The success is worth celebrating, the report said, but tech’s future here is not at all guaranteed.
“While the ingredients are in place for New York to maintain its momentum, create even more middle- and high-wage jobs in tech, and expand access to tech-powered careers for more New Yorkers, this future is far from a given,” it said. “The city faces more competition than ever from cities that have developed a critical mass of tech companies and are significantly more affordable than New York, including Austin, Miami, Raleigh, Atlanta, and Nashville.”
The authors from Tech:NYC and the Center for an Urban Future implored city and state leaders to address what they believe to be local tech’s most pressing inhibitors: housing affordability and overregulation.
The report calls on the city to build massive amounts of new housing and invest in maintaining the city’s livability. “The single most effective step city and state leaders can take to bolster New York’s tech sector is to address the housing affordability crisis,” it said. “While tech workers are far from the most housing-burdened New Yorkers, high housing costs make it harder to attract and retain the skilled, creative, and entrepreneurial talent that drives tech innovation.”
The report also recommended local leaders declutter some of the bureaucratic red tape that inhibits tech startup growth. That includes unlocking city data and making it easier for startups to win city contracts.
“New York has the opportunity to overcome these and other challenges to build a larger, more sustainable, and more inclusive tech ecosystem,” the report concluded. “But it will require renewed support from city leaders.”
