How To Read New York's Tech Workforce Numbers Without Being Misled
Every few months a report declares the city's tech sector booming or collapsing. The gap is usually definitional.
Reports on New York's technology workforce disagree with each other constantly, and the disagreement is rarely about the underlying reality. It is about who gets counted.
The definitional problem
Some counts measure employment at technology companies. Others measure technology occupations wherever they sit — which includes the very large number of engineers employed by banks, insurers, media groups and retailers in New York. In a headquarters city, the second number is dramatically larger than the first.
A report using the narrow definition can show contraction in the same quarter a report using the broad definition shows growth, and both can be accurate.
Where to get the primary data
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes occupational employment and wage statistics by metropolitan area, which lets you look at specific occupations rather than a sector aggregate. The New York State Department of Labor publishes regional employment data. These are the sources the reports are built on, and reading them directly avoids the framing.
What to actually look at
For a picture of the job market, occupational data beats sector data. For a picture of the startup ecosystem specifically, company-level headcount data is more relevant. Deciding which question you are asking before you open the spreadsheet is most of the work.
The honest summary
New York's technology employment is unusually distributed across non-technology employers. Any analysis that treats the city like a pure startup hub will misread it, in both directions.