In his annual report to the state’s Financial Control Board yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg offered this intriguing fact: “the labor force is growing faster in New York City than elsewhere in the country. Our growth – at 1.6 percent – is nearly twice that of the nation’s at 0.7 percent.”
This doesn’t mean that New York has job growth; the city continues to shed jobs along with the rest of the nation. It does mean that people without jobs are willing to stay here or come here and look for work.
Historically, many people who can’t find jobs create their own jobs, even whole new industry niches. And people moving here today can enjoy the best residential-rental market New York has seen in more than a decade.
This is good news for the city’s recovery, especially as it tries to wean itself off its dependence on Wall Street.
And it’s all the more reason for Bloomberg et. al. to work harder to fix the city’s cost structure, to maintain and improve quality of life — police, transit, taxes, etc. — and build on this bit of good news.
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