New York City is at record-high employment. We’re the nation’s top destination for young talent, with half a million college students and as many recent graduates from across the country. With each passing day, there are more small businesses and tourists, and fewer vacant stores and offices.
These facts were unimaginable just a few years ago, when economists, journalists, and pundits warned of a post-pandemic “urban doom loop” and a fiscal crisis on par with the 1970s. They said people and companies would flee. That our streets would hollow out.
They were wrong. As a lifelong New Yorker, I might be biased. But the data in the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s new “State of the Economy” report is not.
Just look at the numbers. New York City is at record highs in employment and workforce participation. There are more small businesses open today than ever before. We’ve had back-to-back quarters of declining storefront and office vacancy rates. New Yorkers are back in the game.
The tourists are back, too. Nearly 65 million came to New York City in 2024 and a record 68 million are predicted for 2025.
Our finance sector is more robust than before the pandemic (remember how all those jobs were going to move to Miami and Dallas?). Emerging sectors like technology, life sciences, and the green economy are vibrant. And New York City is rapidly emerging as the applied AI capital of the world, with new AI tools being developed across every industry.
Counter to predictions of financial ruin, City tax revenues are at an all-time high.
So what accounts for this remarkable comeback?
It starts with Mayor Adams, who was elected on a pro-growth and public safety platform with a commitment to partner with the City’s economic engine: its private sector. He appointed seasoned professionals to oversee economic development, housing, planning and small business. He worked with city and state elected leaders to implement policies to spur private investment. He made tough calls to restrain public spending, boosting the City’s bond rating while avoiding draconian layoffs.
Of course, too many New Yorkers are still struggling. From 2011 to 2023, New York City added 895,000 jobs but just 353,000 new homes. Top earners in New York City are beating the rest of the country, but lower earners aren’t doing much better here than they could elsewhere. Black unemployment is down 20 percent since Mayor Adams took office, but it’s still more than double white unemployment.
Thankfully, New York City has taken decisive action. In the first months of his administration, Mayor Adams released the “Blueprint for New York City’s Economic Recovery” and the “‘New’ New York” Action Plan to fuel New York City’s comeback. Most recently, the Mayor’s “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan – the most significant zoning reform in half a century – passed the City Council and will lead to 82,000 new housing units. And his bold “Axe the Tax” proposal aims to eliminate city income taxes for working-class New Yorkers.
To re-activate offices, the Mayor launched the “MCORE” program to transform older buildings into modern workspaces, while creating a new pathway to convert offices into homes. To address longstanding disparities, city agencies have prioritized minority-and-women owned businesses for procurement, awarding them a record $6.4 billion last fiscal year.
The Mayor’s “Harbor of the Future” vision is catalyzing job-generating initiatives from South Brooklyn to Kips Bay to Willets Point, while his “Blue Highway” vision will move more goods along our waterways and take trucks off our streets, improving our economy and our health.
Four years after COVID, New York City has roared back to life. The morning subway platforms teem with commuters. The cafes, bodegas, and boutiques buzz with customers. The sun rises over cranes building new neighborhoods, from the North Shore of Staten Island to the South Bronx. There is a new optimism on our streets.
The doomsayers were wrong. New York City is stronger than ever.
Andrew Kimball is the president & CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation
