New York’s tech jobs are growing faster — from a smaller base

New York has a number to put against Silicon Valley’s reputation. Tech employment in the city rose 32 per cent over the past decade, more than twice the Bay Area’s rate, according to a Tech:NYC and HR&A Advisors report shared with Semafor.

It has not overtaken the Bay Area in size. The reported workforces are 452,000 in New York and 804,000 in the Bay Area. One place is growing faster; the other still employs substantially more people. Confusing those statements makes for a better boast and a worse account of the market.

The interesting detail is where the New York jobs sit. Semafor reports that software developers accounted for the largest number of new tech roles at non-tech companies. Banks, insurers and law firms are not merely customers for software. They are employers of the people who build and implement it.

That helps explain why the city’s tech conversation often sounds different. Tech:NYC chief executive Julie Samuels describes a focus on implementation: who uses the technology, who pays for it and what changes inside a business. Thinking Machines Lab and Cohere opened their first New York offices this year, while Anthropic leased a Hudson Square building, Semafor reports.

The claim that diversification makes New York more resilient is Samuels’s argument, not a guarantee against layoffs. Still, the jobs data point to a useful distinction. A city does not need to become Silicon Valley to build a substantial technology economy. It can put technology to work inside the economy it already has.

Source: Semafor