New York is the heart of a new digital economy.

[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.

[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...

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.

[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.

[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?

[santaclaus]

Outside of the traditional finance areas, commercial internet access can sometimes be a bit spotty as well. Large swaths of Brooklyn just aren't wired up. Hell, even in midtown I had a buddy uproot and move offices because Time Warner couldn't keep the pipes bits flowing into their building, and they would experience outages for hours at a time.

[soperj]

How can you make this comment when you have no basis for comparison?

[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.

[hahahafail]

^this. The $39.50/hr they quote (~80k salary) isn't much for NYC, especially with a family. I make more than that in my small town working remotely for a SF bay area company and I wouldn't move there without ~$125k minimum.

[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?

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[geekbri]

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

[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.

[RTesla]

hardly new

[vcavallo]

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

[l33tbro]

My guess? Upvoted to front by site's authors for traction.