Report: Economy to Wallop Brooklyn's Fledging Financial Services

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce released a labor report today chronicling the borough’s up-and-down economy since 2001. While Brooklyn has added 23,000 jobs since 2001 (a growth rate of 5.7 percent) and had a noticeable uptick in residential permits, the near-term forecast indicates “job losses in several key sectors” and a housing slump that “will affect tens of thousands of New Yorkers."

Despite the high job growth rate, certain industries lost jobs, especially blue-collar fields like manufacturing, construction and wholesale trade, which lost approximately 14,000 jobs since 2001. There was a 40 percent decrease in factory jobs in Brooklyn since 2000. Job growth was strong in retail trade, financial services, educational services and health services, although the ongoing effects of the credit crises are likely to wipe out a sizable chunk of Brooklyn’s burgeoning financial services industry.

During the construction boom of 2004 to 2007, Brooklyn led all boroughs with an average of 9,000 new residential permits a year. Not surprisingly, the recent uptick in permits has slowed substantially this year, dropping by almost 40 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared to first quarter 2007. In downtown Brooklyn, office vacancy rates have risen from 7.8 percent in first quarter of 2007 to 9.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

The full report can be read here (PDF).