One Region: Planning for a Stronger Future Together
The New York City metropolitan region’s economy is one of the largest in the world, representing more than 10 million jobs, $1.7 trillion in annual economic activity, and nearly 10% of U.S. GDP. Our economic output is the size of Russia’s — and that’s not fake news.
New York City sits at the center of this economic engine, but we are not alone in defining it.
The city and our surrounding suburbs have historically supplied a connected ecosystem of places to live and work, and today 30% of NYC’s workforce — over a million people — live outside the city and commute in. Conversely, more than 400,000 New York City residents find economic opportunity outside of our borders.
But today, dramatic shifts in the geography of the region’s growth are changing our communities and our economies. As seen in The Geography of Jobs, a report issued today by The New York City Department of City Planning, and discussed at a roundtable of planning and economic development leaders from the Tri-State region, the city represents 41% of the region’s jobs, but accounts for 75% of the new private sector jobs since the great recession.
The city’s resurgence is a world away from the exodus of businesses and workers from the urban core that occurred in the 70’s. Today, new mixed-use business districts in Downtown Brooklyn, Long Island City, the Bronx Hub and across the boroughs have seen an additional 584,000 jobs — buoyed by a growing workforce that can walk, bicycle or take transit to work.
Other urban areas like Jersey City and Stamford are also thriving — but as a region, the pockets of economic growth have not been substantial enough to offset declines in traditional suburban, auto-centric job centers. Despite New York City’s impressive rise, the metropolitan economy as a whole is growing more slowly than other U.S. regions.
Why? Where we work is changing — and we have not adequately prepared for this shift.
Our workforce is moving to places with transit access to job centers. Communities that are providing new housing near public transportation are the beneficiaries of that unevenly distributed talent gain, while areas with declining housing opportunities are losing their young talent base.
The only two areas of our region that grew their young workforce since 2010 have been New York City and Northern New Jersey, both of which issued permits for more than 150,000 housing units in that period. But our region’s other areas failed to aggressively grow housing to support a young workforce — and thus lost out on growth.
For the health of our entire region, we need to work together to shape a holistic vision for housing and for transit, the interconnected sectors that The Geography of Jobs report shows are key to growth. And we must advocate as a region, with one voice, for enhanced federal funding for transit projects like the Gateway Tunnel — projects that we know will fuel jobs expansion in our cities, towns and beyond.
Some of the coming decades’ economic challenges are known — climate change, and the automation and disruption of certain sectors — and some we cannot predict. But we cannot realize the vast potential of our city without a planning process that reaches beyond city limits and involves voices from across the region. We are looking forward to continuing the conversation.
