Technology is fastest-growing industry in New York

Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. joined companies driving a 33 percent jump in New York's technology jobs in the past four years, making the industry the fastest-growing part of the city's economy, a report said.

Between 2009 and 2013, about 7,000 technology companies created 25,000 jobs, a pace four times faster than any other industry, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said. Last year, venture-capital firms invested $1.3 billion in 222 companies in the New York metropolitan area as technology jobs rose to more than 100,000, he said.

"New York City is attracting tech firms because of its unmatched quality of life, its large creative workforce, its investment opportunities, and its public commitment to fostering a tech training ground through education and university partnerships," DiNapoli said in a statement.

The growth of the technology industry in the city coincides with efforts made by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg over the past 12 years to diversify the city's economy to become less reliant on Wall Street. The securities industry accounted for 8.5 percent of revenue in the fiscal year that ended June 30, the highest since the financial crisis in 2008.

The comptroller was to be joined at a Manhattan press briefing by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has pledged to continue the efforts of Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

Global Center

"New York City has emerged as a global center for innovation, and my administration is committed to leveraging all of our resources effectively so that technology companies start and thrive here," the mayor said in a prepared statement.

The state pension fund, which DiNapoli controls, invested $122.8 million in 133 tech-related companies in the city between 2007 and 2013, he said. Though the firms initially clustered in a section of Manhattan known as Silicon Alley - a area that includes Chelsea, the Flatiron District and SoHo - it's now spreading into downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City in Queens, DiNapoli said.

In 2011, the Bloomberg administration conducted a competition resulting in Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology receiving land on Roosevelt Island on the East River and $100 million for infrastructure improvements to build an applied sciences and engineering school that will encompass 1.3 million square feet by 2027. By 2043, it will have 2,500 students and 280 professors.

Google's Help

In 2012, Mountain View, California-based Google, owner of the world's biggest Internet search engine, which employs 3,000 in the city, provided 22,000 square feet at its New York offices for 5 1/2 years, or until completion of the campus. The school may generate 600 spinoff companies and $23 billion in economic activity over the next three decades, according to the city's Economic Development Corp.

Also in 2012, the city created a new high school with an emphasis on computer software engineering and business in Washington Square, near several technology startup companies.

The average annual salary of jobs in the industry was $118,600 in 2012, compared with an average of $79,500 for all other jobs in New York City, said DiNapoli, who defined the segment as businesses that design, manufacture, develop or maintain new technologies related to computer systems and data processing centers.