What's New This Quarter
During the spring,
the New York Times surveyed the city’s tech scene and came to mixed conclusions. While excitement abounds, “The hype has definitely died down,” said David Tisch, a co-founder of Techstars, a local startup. “It’s harder to point to one thing and say, ‘that’s New York tech.’ ” Even so, the Times noted, the amount of venture, angel and private equity money invested in New York rose dramatically between 2009 and 2013, to $3 billion from $799 million, according to CB Insights. Companies such as Canary, FiftyThree, Kickstarter, Warby Parker, MongoDB, AppNexus, Shapeways and MakerBot all benefited. New York tech companies are outpacing the rest of the country in growing revenue, raising capital and hiring, according to a report by Silicon Valley Bank. “We like the momentum we see in New York,” Carrie Merritt, a Silicon Valley Bank spokeswoman, told Crain’s. “We believe this momentum is based on fact, not merely perception.” In New York, she said, 82 percent of tech companies are planning to hire in 2014, the highest percentage of all regions surveyed and one that compares well to the national average of 76 percent and Silicon Valley’s average of 77 percent.
Click here to find tech jobs in NYC. Meanwhile, recruiter
Robert Half Technology reports that 14 percent of New York-area technology executives—which includes those in other industries—plan to expand their IT teams in the second half of the year, down from 17 percent in the last half. Seventy one percent plan to hire only for open IT roles. In the same survey, 82 percent of New York CIOs were optimistic about their companies’ prospects for growth in the second half, and 67 percent felt confident in their firms’ investment in IT projects. Many top professionals are finding their way into the local branches of global tech companies.
Facebook now has more than 300 people in the city, 100 of whom are engineers. Twitter, Pinterest, Dropbox,
eBay and Yelp also have New York offices. Google, which employs 3,600 people in the city (half of whom are engineers), is getting bigger, launching a search for enough space to hold another 3,000 people. If it picks up 600,000 more square feet, it would represent an 80 percent expansion of the company’s local footprint. Maybe it should look in Staten Island. Mayor Bill de Blasio told a Google Hangout that “the expansion of the tech sector has to be a five-borough endeavor, even beyond the strongholds of Manhattan.” Etsy is taking his advice. The online marketplace is expanding its operations and opening a new headquarters in Brooklyn, a move that will create 340 jobs on top of the 400
engineering, administration, marketing and support jobs already here. Back in Manhattan, Square Inc., the startup that brought credit card scanners to iPhones, will expand its New York workforce tenfold and open an office on West Broadway in SoHo, the company said. A $5 million incentive package from New York State’s Empire State Development program certainly helped make it happen.
Skills in Demand
Fifty-seven percent of New York technology executives surveyed by recruiter Robert Half Technology said that
network administration is among the skill sets in greatest demand within their IT departments.
Desktop support and
wireless network management followed. Recruiters also see a need for
HTML5,
iOS and
Android developers, as well as
Java,
JavaScript,
Google apps, and all kinds of
UI design. “Right now, Web-based and mobile skills are in particularly high demand as website rebuilds and app development projects are on the rise,” said Tom Borghesi, New York district president of Robert Half Technology. “
Consulting opportunities remain strong as businesses are seeking skilled workers on a project basis. The top industries for job opportunities include software, media and advertising.”
Salary Trends
According to the
2014-2013 Dice Salary Survey, the average salary for a New York-based IT professional is $93,915, up 4.7 percent from the previous year and 6.9 percent above the national average of $87,811.
Leading Industries
- Financial Services
- Advertising
- Media
- Insurance
- Telecom (specifically in New Jersey)
Local Employment and Research Resources
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Image: Joakim Lloyd Raboff /Shutterstock.com
