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Dear New Yorkers,
For most of the past half-century, Wall Street has been the most significant job sector driving New York City’s economy. This high level of reliance on a single sector has left the city exposed to the booms and busts of the financial sector.
While Wall Street remains a key sector for the city, the tech sector has been gaining ground over the past fifteen years – the number of jobs in tech surpassed those in securities in 2020, and remains about 10% higher, despite recent layoffs. This month’s Spotlight takes a closer look at the city’s tech sector – its growth, composition, and implications for the city’s fiscal outlook.
As with Wall Street, jobs in the tech sector pay much higher than average – but also generally require significant education, perpetuating patterns of inequality. Preserving the city’s economic dynamism, while sharing it better, remains a key challenge in both sectors.
Meanwhile, the latest data suggest that the U.S. and NYC economies are continuing to grow. As New Yorkers returned to work and school after the summer, subway stations in office-dense parts of Manhattan showed big increases in ridership at mid-week rush hours.
This was the wettest September since 1882, capped by Tropical Storm Ophelia clobbering the city on Friday September 29th. My office is launching an investigation into the City’s management of extreme rainfall events, including how the City is implementing the policies set forth after Hurricane Ida two years ago. With two “100 year storms” in three years, it’s clear that extreme weather is our new climate reality. The goal is to make sure we implement the plans we’ve made, and do everything we reasonably can to accelerate action that will keep New Yorkers safe.
Many of those actions are infrastructure improvements, contained in the Capital Commitment Plan that City Hall released last month for Fiscal Years 2024-27. While the City projects to commit nearly $78 billion over the plan’s four years, actual commitments have rarely matched targets.
That’s why we’re continuing to work with City Hall to win capital process reform legislation in Albany, and to improve transparency and project management across City agencies. And why we’ll keep watching the capital dollars, as well as the expense ones.
Brad Lander
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