There are more than 5,100 new people working in Lower Manhattan, compared to this time last year, and another 10,000 are on the way, according to a new report from the Downtown Alliance. The group’s Lower Manhattan Real Estate Market Overview for the second quarter of 2016 reckons the total number of jobs in the area south of Chambers Street to be approximately 232,000, which means that Lower Manhattan now hosts nearly the same number of workers it had at the time of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when there were 236,700 people employed here. The report goes on to note that the Westfield World Trade Center retail complex (slated to open this month) is expected to draw an additional 10,000 full- and part-time employees, to staff the 120 stores and restaurants that will fill the 365,000 square feet of retail space.
Among the businesses driving the increased number of jobs Downtown is the hotel, retail and restaurant sectors, which added a combined total of more than 2,000 employees in 2015, when more than 58 new stores and restaurants came online, as well as 433 new hotel rooms. The education and healthcare sectors contributed an additional 1,300-plus staff positions during the same period. And the TAMI (technology, advertising, media, and information) sector piled on another 1,000 jobs.
“The landscape of Lower Manhattan continues to change as we welcome a major influx of stores, restaurants and hotels to the area,” said Alliance president Jessica Lappin. “The evolution of this cultural scene has not only made the area more desirable to companies across various disciplines, but has also created demand for workers with different skill sets. Downtown really offers job opportunities for all New Yorkers, now more than ever.”
The employment numbers contained in the Alliance’s report comport with those in a statistical analysis released earlier this year by the City’s Department of Health (DOH), which found that unemployment in the area covered by the Alliance’s report is the lowest for any community in the City, at just five percent (compared with 11 percent for the City as a whole). The DOH report also found that rates of poverty in Lower Manhattan are the third-lowest for any community in the City (only the Upper East Side and the Tottenville/Great Kills area of Staten Island have fewer poor people), while adult educational attainment here is the third-highest (with the Upper East Side and the Stuyvesant Town/Turtle Bay area the only communities scoring higher).
The mission of the Downtown Alliance is to enhance Lower Manhattan for businesses, residents and visitors. (Along with other functions, the Alliance also provides local security and operates the business improvement district, or BID, that covers the area south of Chambers Street.) Among the services provided by the Alliance that Lower Manhattan residents especially prize is Downtown Connection shuttle, which ferries passengers (free of charge) between 37 local stops that link residential areas neighborhoods with business and shopping districts. The Downtown Connection was launched by the Alliance in 2003 and expanded in 2009. Funded in part by the Battery Park City Authority, the Connection shuttle is currently utilized by more than 800,000 people each year.