NYCEDC – NYC Business Climate

Facts & Figures

Upon taking office at the start of 2002, the Bloomberg Administration launched an effort to redefine New York City’s economic development strategy. The administration sought to analyze New York’s competitive position and understand the conditions for growth in employment, standard of living, and the tax base across all five boroughs.

Extensive review and collaboration led to an economic development strategy with three primary areas of focus:

Make New York City more livable
Make New York City more business-friendly
Diversify the New York City economy

For more detailed information about specific development initiatives throughout the five boroughs, view the Mayor’s Economic Development Initiatives (PDF 651 KB).

Below, we highlight some NYC Facts & Figures that reflect these areas of focus. For more New York Statistics, visit the NYCdata Website.

NEW YORK CITY IS LIVABLE

Over the past 6 years, New York City’s population has risen.

	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
The Bronx (Bronx County)	1,361,973	1,367,244	1,367,529	1,364,566	1,361,473	1,373,659
Brooklyn (Kings County)	2,481,122	2,483,164	2,497,859	2,511,408	2,508,820	2,528,050
Manhattan (New York County)	1,569,487	1,582,705	1,590,911	1,606,275	1,611,581	1,620,867
Queens (Queens County)	2,234,000	2,244,238	2,250,718	2,256,576	2,255,175	2,270,338
Staten Island (Richmond County)	460,294	466,647	471,184	475,014	477,377	481,613
New York City	8,106,876	8,143,998	8,178,201	8,213,839	8,214,426	8,274,527

SAFETY

In order to continually attract and retain employers and employees, New York City is committed to improving the quality of life here. One important component of that commitment is safety, and New York City crime rate is below the national average and continues to fall.

DIVERSITY

New York City’s is already known as a melting pot, and our culturally and ethnically diverse population reflects that there is a place for everyone in the City:

37% of New Yorkers are foreign born
We have residents from 138 countries
More than 200 languages and dialects are spoken here

NEW YORK CITY IS BUSINESS FRIENDLY

A STRONG BUSINESS NETWORK

New York City’s strong network of industry-leading companies makes it a strategic location for business. We have more Fortune 500 companies than any other U.S. city, leading the pack with 44.

Fortune 500 Companies in New York City
Alcoa	Consolidated Edison	Loews
Altria Group	Dover	Marsh & McLennan
American Express	Estée Lauder	McGraw-Hill
American Intl. Group	Foot Locker	Merrill Lynch
Asbury Automotive Group	Goldman Sachs Group	MetLife
Assurant	Guardian Life of America	Morgan Stanley
Avon Products	Hess	New York Life Insurance
Bank of New York Co.	IAC/InteractiveCorp	News Corporation
Barnes & Noble	Interpublic Group	Omnicom Group
Bear Stearns	Jones Apparel Group	Pfizer
Bristol-Myers Squibb	J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.	TIAA-CREF
CBS	Keyspan	Time Warner
Cendant	L-3 Communications	Verizon Communications
Citigroup	Lehman Brothers Holdings	Viacom
Colgate-Palmolive	Liz Claiborne	Virgin Media

(Source: Fortune Magazine 2007)

ACCESSIBLE TRANSPORTATION

NYC workers take advantage of the City’s safe and efficient public transportation system that includes extensive subway and bus routes.

Visit our Transportation page to learn more about NYCEDC’s efforts in this area.

EMPLOYMENT RATES

NYC average unemployment rate in 2007 was 5.0%, the lowest it has been
for the City since 1976 (the earliest time period for which this data has been
estimated by BLS using the current methodology) .

Year	Labor Force	Employment	Unemployment	Unemployment Rate
1998	3,567,482	3,283,875	283,607	7.9%
1999	3,620,694	3,372,653	248,041	6.9%
2000	3,665,918	3,453,608	212,310	5.8%
2001	3,673,891	3,451,478	222,413	6.1%
2002	3,729,519	3,429,333	300,186	8.0%
2003	3,721,763	3,413,437	308,326	8.3%
2004	3,720,865	3,458,259	262,606	7.1%
2005	3,754,314	3,537,648	216,666	5.8%
2006	3,801,893	3,612,285	189,608	5.0%
2007	3,846,708	3,652,462	194,246	5.0%

(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

NEW YORK CITY HAS A DIVERSE ECONOMY

INDUSTRY DIVERSITY

Known for its world-class financial services industry, New York City is also home to a variety of other thriving industries and trades.

Industry	Number of Employees in 2007
FIRE	470,000
Finance and Insurance	350,358
Real Estate	119,642
SERVICES	1,905,475
Information	165,258
Professional and Business	586,692
Educational	151,342
Health & Social Assistance	555,942
Arts & Entertainment	63,975
Accommodation & Food	226,833
Other	155,433
TRADE	438,558
Retail	291,675
Wholesale	146,883
MANUFACTURING	99,508
TRANSPORTATION & UTILITY	124,358
CONSTRUCTION	124,325
*TOTAL PRIVATE*	*3,162,283*
GOVERNMENT	555,317
*TOTAL (Private + Government) NYC*	*3,717,592*

(Source: NYSDOL)

Visit our Industry Overviews to learn more.

GLOBAL WORKFORCE

With a large population of foreign born residents, New York City offers businesses a diverse pool of international talent. New York City ranked 5th in the world in foreign born persons as a share of total population in 2004.

Country Flag	City	2004 Percentage
	Miami	59%
	Toronto	44%
	Los Angeles	41%
	Vancouver	37%
	New York City	36%
	Singapore	33%
	Sydney	31%
	Abidjan	30%
	London	28%
	Paris	23%

(Source: UN Habitat 2004; U.S. Census Bureau 2004b; World Cities Project 2002; Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001; Statistics Canada 2004)

GLOBAL COMPANIES

New York City works hard to develop and maintain relationships with global business partners. We are home to 24 Fortune Global 500 companies, ranking 3rd internationally.

Country Flag	Rank	City	Country	No. of Global 500 Companies	Global 500 Revenues ($ Millions)
	1	Tokyo	Japan	52	1,662,496
	2	Paris	France	27	1,188,819
	3	New York	U.S.	24	1,040,959
	4	London	Britain	23	1,054,734
	5	Beijing	China	15	520,490
	6	Seoul	South Korea	9	344,894
	7	Toronto	Canada	8	154,836
	8	Madrid	Spain	7	232,714
	8	Zürich	Switzerland	7	308,466
	9	Houston	U.S.	6	326,700
	9	Osaka	Japan	6	180,588
	9	Munich	Germany	6	375,860
	9	Atlanta	U.S.	6	202,706
	10	Rome	Italy	5	210,303
	10	Düsseldorf	Germany	5	225,803

(Source: Fortune Magazine July 24, 2006)

Visit our For International Businesses section to learn more.