NYC Job Growth Strong in Healthcare, Lags in Tech
A new report on New York City's job market indicates that while the healthcare and social assistance sectors added 71,040 jobs in the past year, high-wage sectors like finance, professional services, and information saw almost no growth in 2025. Jobless claims surged 30% year-over-year, suggesting continued volatility despite the city adding 16,300 private sector jobs in December.
- The slowdown in high-wage sectors was significant over the past year, with financial activities losing 6,300 jobs, professional and business services losing 2,300, and the information sector losing 500 jobs. Excluding the gains in healthcare and social assistance, private-sector employment in the city would have actually fallen by 38,000 jobs over the last 12 months. - While overall tech hiring has cooled, demand is surging for specialized AI and machine learning roles in NYC. The city is now considered a global hub for "applied AI," with over 2,000 AI startups, as legacy sectors in finance, healthcare, and advertising upgrade their systems. - Tech hiring in early 2026 has become more selective and targeted toward roles with clear ROI, such as data enablement, automation, and infrastructure. Companies are prioritizing candidates with experience deploying systems into production over those with purely experimental skills. - The city's broader private sector added fewer than 1,000 jobs in the first half of 2025, the weakest performance for that period since the Great Recession, excluding the pandemic year of 2020. - Despite the market slowdown, venture capital continues to flow to NYC startups, particularly those in AI and machine learning. Recent funding rounds include Modal Labs, which develops ML software to run code in the cloud, and WorkFusion, which provides AI agents for financial compliance. - The robust growth in healthcare is largely driven by an aging population and expanded investment in biotech and telehealth. Much of this growth is concentrated in ambulatory and home health care services, which have surpassed hospitals as the largest subsector.
