DiNapoli Highlights Brooklyn Economy in New Report

New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli issued an “economic snapshot” of Brooklyn today, informing the public largely about what they already know—that the borough is the “hottest” in terms of business and job growth, especially in the booming neighborhoods of northern Brooklyn—but also highlighting several challenges that still lie ahead.

Among the highlights of the report are that between 2003 and 2012, private sector employment in Brooklyn grew by 19.8 percent, faster than any other borough, and twice the rate of growth in the rest of the city. Private sector wages in Brooklyn also grew by 42 percent during that same time period. As a result, the unemployment rate in Brooklyn has declined from a peak of 10.9 percent during the recession to 8.9 percent during the first quarter of this year.

“Brooklyn is a diverse borough, a dynamic borough, and more and more, Brooklyn is proving itself to be a king…of job growth and business expansion in this city,” DiNapoli said.

The setting for the release of DiNapoli’s report, the Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg, was fitting considering that the neighborhood is one of the borough’s great success stories over the last decade as an economic center—a fact that DiNapoli and many of the local elected officials in attendance pointed out repeatedly. The report shows that Williamsburg and Greenpoint account for 10 percent of Brooklyn’s jobs, and businesses in Williamsburg grew by nearly 32 percent between 2003 and 2011, compared to a 21 percent throughout the borough.

Still, even as Brooklyn’s “brand” is becoming more synonymous with innovation and job creation, many challenges remain. Brooklyn’s great gains in private sector job growth is offset by average private sector salary for jobs located in the borough which was only $38,550 in 2012, the lowest of the five boroughs. The low average salary reflects that much of the job growth is seen in lower wage sectors such as health care and retail.

Moreover, while Greenpoint, Williamsburg, and neighborhoods in brownstone Brooklyn are reaping the benefits of the job boom, some of the neediest neighborhoods such as Brownsville, Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, and East New York have unemployment rates that are at least 50 percent higher than the borough-wide rate.

Carlo Scissura, the president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce mentioned some of these neighborhoods as ripe for growth during his remarks at the press conference, and was asked what the city can do to encourage commercial growth outside of the northern Brooklyn bubble.

“It’s a matter of providing some incentives, but really my focus is don’t leave Brooklyn to go anywhere else, if you have to expand, expand in East New York and Brownsville, and central Brooklyn, parts of Bed-Stuy, parts of Canarsie, there’s cheaper land, cheaper space, there’s a workforce that we can train there, you’re near the airports, you’ve got public transportation, it’s just ripe,” Scissura said.

Scissura added that the sort of mixed-use developments that Mayor Bill de Blasio has floated as part of his plan to create or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing, such as the Livonia Commons project in East New York, can serve as a model for “affordable housing, retail stores, and manufacturing jobs,” that could be replicated throughout the country.

In the wake of Mayor de Blasio’s housing plan announcment, the comptroller’s report serves as an example of why the need for affordable housing in Brooklyn has become so desperate. Between 2000 and 2012, the median monthly rent rose by 71 percent in Brooklyn, with the median income lagging far behind at 41 percent growth during that time. In 2012 alone, nearly 30 percent of all households in Brooklyn devoted more than half of their income to rent. DiNapoli’s report adds that much of the housing built in the borough in recent years “has not been affordable housing.”

Superstorm Sandy recovery remains a bugaboo for parts of the borough as well, and the slow pace of recovery is still being felt, with transit repairs putting the R and G train out of commission for much of the summer, but also thousands of residents and business still reeling from the storm’s devastation.

To read the full report, click here.