Driven by strong local growth from industry giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook, tech hiring in New York City increased by 10 percent last year, according to recent data.
A new analysis from ON Partners, an executive search firm, reported that New York City added 8,190 tech jobs in 2019. In addition to the tech giants listed above, companies like Compass, Spotify, Microsoft and Uber were also responsible for the largest annual headcount gains in the city.
While a strong showing, this number was slightly lower than the city’s 2018 numbers, which saw a 13.4 percent increase in tech employment and 9,420 new jobs.
John Barrett, partner at ON Partners, said in a statement that the slowdown “began over the summer and continued to the end of the year.” He expected the trend to continue given the current public-health crisis presented by the COVID-19 virus.
“Increasing fears due to the coronavirus are expected to dampen hiring in this year’s first quarter, which is historically the strongest period for new hiring,” Barrett said.
Still, many of the above tech giants reportedly have plans for additional growth in NYC in the near future.
Last December, Amazon said it was leasing 335,000 square feet of new office space in the Hudson Yards neighborhood. The new office space will house more than 1,500 employees and is slated to open in 2021. The company had about 8,000 employees in the city as of last year.
Meanwhile, Google is rumored to be adding “thousands more” to its team in the city. The company currently has 8,000 employees in NYC and is reportedly on track to bring that local headcount to 14,000 by 2028. Additionally, it’s planning to open a new campus in Hudson Square.
For its part, Facebook was said to be eyeing a new lease of 700,000 square feet of office in the Farley Building, a renovated post office in Midtown Manhattan, as of last December. The company is planning to double its local headcount — about 3,000 — within the next three to five years.
Salesforce, Indeed and Lyft rounded out the analysis’ ranking of the 10 NYC companies that made the most local hires last year.
