

New York is the heart of a new digital economy. - shakes
http://www.nyctecheconomy.com/

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cpwright
"The average NYC tech ecosystem hourly wage is $39.50 49% greater than the NYC
median (AND 44% OF THOSE JOBS DO NOT REQUIRE A BACHELOR’S DEGREE.)" This seems
like a terrible abuse of statistics. The average wage of $39.50 may be 49%
greater than the NYC median, but what is the median tech ecosystem hourly
wage. It is probably lower than the average. Of those jobs that do not require
a bachelor's degree, how many are actually held by people without a bachelors
degree, and what is the average (or better yet median) wage for those without
a bachelors degree.

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candybar
The average-median thing seems to be just a mistake by whoever wrote that
summary. If you look at the full report, this is what they have:

"Workers in the New York City tech ecosystem earn 49% more than the average
City-wide hourly wage. The hourly wage for the tech ecosystem is $39.50, while
the average City-wide wage is $26.50."

Your other points are valid, of course.

Edit: this is the full report and is quite a bit more informative than the
summary: [http://www.hraadvisors.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/03/NYC_Te...](http://www.hraadvisors.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/03/NYC_Tech_Ecosystem_032614_WEB.pdf)

Edit2: no longer completely sure what they are talking about:

"As of 2013, the average New York City median hourly wage was $26.50. Tech
ecosystem jobs pay above the City-wide average. In fact, tech ecosystem
workers are paid 49% more than the City-wide average of $26.50. In comparison
to this average, tech workers in tech firms earn 75% more, tech workers in
non-tech firms earn 51% more, and non-tech workers in tech firms earn 25%
more."

I suspect their "average" "median" income is median income by job category
averaged together. With that said, it looks like they arrived at the tech
average wage in a similar fashion.

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tootie
The tech sector has always been big in NYC, but it's not the same as a Silicon
Valley. There's far fewer pure tech companies and a lot more tech services
especially around our traditional big industries, finance and media. There's a
handful of significant tech shops, but mostly it's consulting, IT and the
like. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

~~~
jgalt212
Yes, it definitely seems like the best play to make in NYC is to build a
business catering to, or symbiotic to, one of the big existing NYC industries.
This way you can leverage off the time/place advantages of being in NYC.

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ludicast
It really is awesome being in NYC. I have lived here my whole life, from when
every neighborhood was dangerous to now when even harlem is hoarding hipsters.

I have no basis of comparison, but this city really kicks ass. The
restaurants, the activities, the opportunities for work. If something is
holding you or your startup back, that something is not NYC.

~~~
ryanSrich
Cost of living, mostly just rent.

Why would I choose to live and start a business in NYC when places like
Seattle, Portland, Austin, Chicago, and DC all have drastically lower costs of
living?

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j10t
If saving money is your top priority, stay out of NYC. Move to Springfield,
Memphis, or Wichita Falls.

If you enjoy certain characteristics of urban living -- dense, progressive,
diverse, bustling -- NYC is peerless.

~~~
ryanSrich
> If you enjoy certain characteristics of urban living -- dense, progressive,
> diverse, bustling

Plenty of cities have these characteristics that have a much lower cost of
living than NYC.

I love NYC. It's a great city, probably the greatest city on earth, but there
are plenty of other options out there.

~~~
j10t
Those traits are no more boolean than cost.

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mhurron
The industry will be in a better place when there no longer is any physical
center to a 'digital economy.' When people don't feel the need to move to
places they can't afford to 'make it' and instead can work where they are or
where they want to be and still do what they want to the maximum their product
or service allows.

~~~
bowlofpetunias
You realize that there are a lot of "they" who don't want to spend all of
there lives in NowhereVille in the state of NothingEverHappensHere ?

In fact there are many people who select their career exactly because it
allows them to move to places like that?

~~~
potatolicious
Despite being condescending and smug you are actually agreeing with the person
you replied to.

The lack of a physical center to an economy means its participants can live
wherever they choose to live, whether that is New York City or, as you so
condescendingly put it, "NowhereVille".

There are still many perfectly fine places in the world that people are forced
to move away from in order to participate in the tech economy. Getting rid of
these barriers will only increase people's freedom to live where they are
happiest.

The existence of choice for people who don't want to live in a tech capital of
SF and NYC doesn't at all diminish your experience of living in such a place.
What's with the misplaced anger?

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zaidf
The saddest part of the New York tech economy are the dozens(if not hundreds)
of ad "tech" companies selling retargeting disguised as some new proprietary
technology.

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avn2109
I am about to be job hunting in the city. Can you name some names to save me a
bit of trouble down the road? Who should I avoid?

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heydenberk
The claim made in the headline is not supported by the text that follows,
which doesn't provided data on tech employment in any other cities or metros.
It'd be better to say "New York's tech scene is thriving" if that's what the
data support.

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lnlyplnt
Regardless the the somewhat deceptive title, this is still an impressive
collection of stats. The full study does a great job of explaining how the
tech economy is also good for the traditional economy and those without
technical backgrounds as well. Some of the anti-tech set in SF could stand to
learn from it.

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geekbri
Now let's get some of those jobs out onto long island.

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kimmel
Another New York is the best at X story. Every time another city does
something good New York tries to copy it. They have to keep this kind of PR up
to promote living in an ultra expensive area.

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RTesla
hardly new

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vcavallo
The study was just release today, so it is about as new as it gets - if you're
talking about the study results.

