State Comptroller: NYC's Tech Sector Growing Quickly, Pays Well Above City Average
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - New York City's so-called "Silicon Alley'' is booming, according to a new report from the state's comptroller.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said high-technology jobs have been growing four times faster than the rest of the city's economy the past four years and paid an average 2012 salary of $118,000, about 50 percent higher than the citywide average.
State Comptroller: NYC's Tech Sector Growing Quickly, Pays Well Above City Average
DiNapoli said high-tech firms, ranging from small startups to global giants like Google, created 25,000 city jobs from 2009 to 2013. He added that "Silicon Alley'' now stretches from Manhattan into Brooklyn and Queens.
"We counted just over 100,000 jobs and 7,000 companies citywide. That's 25,000 more jobs than this core high-tech industry had four years ago," said DiNapoli. "That's a 33 percent rate of growth and that's four times faster than the 8 percent rate of job growth in the rest of the city's economy."
The comptroller's report focuses on companies that design, manufacture, develop or maintain new technologies, finding the city was home to nearly 7,000 such firms by the third quarter of last year providing more than 103,000 jobs.
WEB EXTRA: Read The Report (pdf)
He said venture capital firms invested $1.3 billion in 222 of them last year.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who describes himself as pretty minimalist when it comes to tech, also sang the sector's praises.
"We as a city fit this sector and it fits us so well because we are a global capital of creativity, innovation, communication," said the mayor.
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