Welcome to New Tech City

Job market sucks. Yes, we know.  Technological productivity is keeping corporations from needing to hire.  Yes, we know that too.

But here’s what ends up happening…all of that “job-killing” technology creates wealth which creates demand which finally creates jobs.

Last decade’s financialization of our economy is now making way for the technologization of our economy.  As the realtors and bank employees fade from importance, the technorati will take their places.  Programmers, developers, bloggers, hackers, information architects, web advertising execs, social media consultants, e-commerce fulfillment experts, web videographers, etc.  They are young, single and being paid nicely.  They will spend their money locally and this wealth will radiate outward, creating other jobs and demand for services.  Even a kid who spends 90% of his day working in cyberspace needs to step outside and get his hair cut once in awhile, even the bloggers at Chowhound need to actually eat in a physical restaurant here and there.

Mayor Bloomberg is pushing for this very hard in our city…

Here’s the New York Post on his warning shot to Silicon Valley:

“We understand that we will not catch-up to Silicon Valley overnight,” Bloomberg said in his prepared remarks for a Tuesday speech to the business community. “Building a state-of-the-art campus will take years — and attracting a critical mass of technology entrepreneurs will take even longer.”

But, Bloomberg said, he believes that in its first three decades the school could help launch 400 new companies and create more than 22,000 permanent jobs, as well as more than 7,000 construction jobs.

I’m happy to tell you that this phenomenon has already begun here in New York City, hopefully it will one day come to a town near you…

From the Wall Street Journal (emphasis mine):

After years of dominating the Manhattan rental market, Wall Street dynamos are starting to make way for bloggers and tech geeks.

Media and technology workers are rapidly gaining ground as a percentage of the borough’s renters—while the numbers of finance workers in the pool shrink, according to a new report by Nancy Packes, a consultant to some of the city’s biggest residential developers.

In 2005, finance workers made up just over 58% of Manhattan renters, while they now comprise 45%, according to Ms. Packes’s report. The proportion of creative workers who make up the market has nearly doubled to 17% from 8.6% in 2005.

The proportion of renters employed in the technology sector has also risen to 11.6% from 7.2%, partly because Google, Facebook and Twitter have all expanded their Manhattan offices in the last five years.

This works out well as I am a self-loathing financial worker.  I hate all of us.  I’m certain I’ll grow to hate the new media and technology hipsters just as much but there is time.

Within a decade, the American workforce will be unrecognizable to those who though the FIRE Economy (finance, insurance, real estate) would last forever.

Get ready for this, it’s all happening.

Sources:

Mayor Bloomberg fires shot at Silicon Valley tech dominance (NYP)

New Kids Paying Manhattan Rents (WSJ)

Tags: $GOOG