Business

Wall Street’s gains helping tech industry, real estate leasing

Wall Street once again seems to be the engine that makes New York City’s jobs and real estate sectors rev.

Steady growth in the city’s financial services industries has helped it top the tech industry in both job growth and office leasing — although the two are becoming inexorably intertwined as tech jobs grow within the financial industry, a recent report reveals.

The financial services employment grew to 466,300 employees in 2016, up a mere 500 jobs from the previous year, according to the report from Cushman & Wakefield.

From its low-water mark of 425,000 jobs in 2010, following the great recession, financial services sector payrolls have grown by 9.7 percent through 2016.

The number of jobs in the financial services sector still trails its peak employment numbers, which, in 2001 saw more than 490,000 jobs in the city. In 2008, that number had fallen to just about 470,000 jobs.

And Wall Street-related jobs continue to grow.

In the first four months of 2017 the financial services sector has added 7,300 jobs, compared to just 500 in all of last year. The higher growth rate trails just the red-hot Tech, Advertising, Media, and Internet, or TAMI sectors, which together added 8,700 jobs.

“It’s been the best four months in history,” said C&W Chief Economist Ken McCarthy.

In 2017, the financial services sector also accounted for 33.5 percent of all leasing over 10,000 square feet, compared to just 24 percent from 2014-2016 — hen the TAMI sector was the tops with 28.8 percent of all leasing activity.

This year, financial services topped TAMI, which represented 20.4 percent of all leases.

But McCarthy also observed that many financial jobs are now tech related — pointing to JPMorgan Chase’s lease of 300,000 square feet at 5 Manhattan West as a space where the financial giant will locate a technology department.

“TAMI has grown faster but let’s not be mistaken,” McCarthy said. “Financial is largest single sector of employment.”