Jobs Outpace Home Production in Greater New York Metro Area
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Carolyn Grossman Meagher, director of regional planning at the Department of City Planning, says that job opportunities in the Greater New York Metro Area are growing faster than housing opportunities. Eagle photo by Naeisha Rose.
By Naeisha Rose
The New York Metropolitan area is bouncing back with plenty of jobs post-recession, including in both Brooklyn and Queens. But there is a lack of housing for this new workforce, according to Carolyn Grossman Meagher of the Department of City Planning.
"New York City is capturing the vast majority of post-recession economic growth," said Meagher, director of regional planning for the DCP, at a Queens Borough Board Briefing on Monday.
"It is supported by not just strong growth in Manhattan, but strong growth in employment in all the five boroughs."
Manhattan brought in approximately 269,000 of those private jobs, but the other boroughs combined brought in approximately 313,000 private jobs, according to Meagher. The most significant gains were from Brooklyn (169,000) and Queens (98,000).
The entire metro region, which includes the Hudson Valley, north New Jersey, Long Island, southwest Connecticut and New York City, brought in approximately 778,495 private jobs between 2008 and 2017, according to the NYC Planning report.
Long Island and northern New Jersey fell close behind the outer boroughs by bringing in an additional 71,000 and 82,000 private jobs, according to the report.
"We are a highly complex region, but as we all know [New York City is] the big guerrilla surrounded by much, much smaller areas," said Meagher. "We are also a region of 9 million households ... and New York City is just under 40 percent for housing in the region."
In a summary snapshot of Queens, the borough had 857,157 housing units in 2017, which was approximately nine percent of housing for the New York Metro region. From 2010 to 2017, there were 36,985 housing permits and a net housing gain of 22,030.
In 2017, Queens had a population of 2,358,582, according to the snapshot. The borough saw an increase of 127,860 residents from 2010 to 2017.
In comparison, private employment growth for the borough was 98,455, according to the snapshot. Those included office jobs (14,559), institutional jobs (36,245), industrial jobs (10,124) and retail/service jobs (30,724).
People in Queens are now also seeking work outside of Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to Meagher.
"A lot of Queens residents are headed to Long Island, New Jersey and the Hudson Valley for work," said Meagher. "That change in labor force and where we are seeing employment go is creating some geographic imbalances, which have real implications on our transit infrastructure and how we manage that in the future."
New York City and northern New Jersey are adding to housing production, but other parts of the metro area have slowed down in terms of development, according to Meagher.
"New York City is growing along in housing and jobs, but more so in jobs overall," said Meagher. "We are growing jobs faster than we are housing … and North Jersey is really becoming the location of choice for people who want to work in New York City, but can't live here … while Long Island is drawing in workers from Queens, which is affecting our commuter numbers."
