Bloomberg’s Pessimism

Steven Malanga reports that Mayor Bloomberg's numbers aren't that good:

After losing about 180,000 jobs (80,000 immediately after 9/11 and the rest over the next few years), the city only started regaining employment last year, and it ended 2004 with a paltry gain of 0.3 percent, or 10,000 jobs—a mere third of the national job growth rate. This year, the city is on track to add between 35,000 and 40,000 jobs—certainly better than last year but still a growth rate of only about one percent, again well behind the national rate. By the close of this year, the city will have added back only about 50,000 of the 180,000 jobs it has lost since mid-2001.

Moreover, most of the job gains will have come in low-wage areas or in sectors heavily subsidized by government (that is, by tax dollars), like social services. By contrast, crucial industries like financial services and business services—industries that fill the city’s office space, produce most of the middle and upper income jobs, and generate most of the wealth that pays the city’s taxes—have essentially just been peddling in place.

New York is in decline.