The New York Center for Economic Development and Commerce released an economic snapshot for May 2015, coinciding with the first anniversary of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York Plan.
Employment
Overall unemployment was at 6.5 percent in April 2015, a small decrease from March’s 6.6 percent.
Following a gain of 6,900 jobs in March, the private sector fell by 1,100 in April 2015. Despite the loss, New York’s private sector employment has risen by 93,900 jobs, 2.7 percent, since April 2014.
Government jobs rose by 700, which resulted in a net decrease of 369 total private and public sector jobs in April 2015.
Service industry jobs saw the biggest overall loss in jobs since March 2015 with a decrease of 3,432, followed by trade, which fell by 967. Manufacturing saw a slight loss of 62.
Housing and Residential Construction
The May 2015 Economic Snapshot used preliminary data from the 2014 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey to look at housing and residential construction in the city.
Rents show a modest rise in New York City, with the percent of renters paying less than $1,000 monthly between 2006 and 2013 dropping from 57 percent to 35 percent.
While apartment renters in New York saw their rent-to-income ratio increase by 4 percent, rent for households remained at 33.8 percent. More than half of New York City residents spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, but 30 percent of households pay half or more of their income since 2011.
Real Estate
The Manhattan Class A direct vacancy rate fell .2 percent from 8.8 percent from March to April.
Direct vacancy rates fell to 8.1 percent for Midtown and to 3.9 percent for Midtown South Class A office space, while direct rental rates for the two submarkets saw no change from March to April.
