While the share of middle income jobs in New York City has declined over the past couple of decades, there is evidence that industries with middle income wages are staging a bit of a comeback.
This data brief is a publication of the Center for an Urban Future’s Middle Class Jobs Project, a research initiative generously funded by FISHER BROTHERS and WINSTON C. FISHER.
General operating support for the Center for an Urban Future is provided by the Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation; with additional support from the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation and the M&T Charitable Foundation.
As this analysis shows, middle-wage industries—those with annual salaries between $40,000 and $80,000—accounted for 3 of the 8 sectors with a net gain of at least 10,000 jobs. Additionally, the 75 industries producing the greatest job growth between 2011 and 2015 include a near-equal representation of middle-wage sectors (23), low-wage sectors (24) and high-wage sectors (28). And 23 different middle-wage sectors added at least 1,000 jobs during this period.
Despite these positive trends, however, there are clear signs that middle-income industries in New York still lag behind low-wage and high-wage sectors. Overall, middle wage industries added fewer jobs in the five boroughs (110,880) than high-wage industries (112,919) and low-wage industries (169,613).
Middle income sectors also account for a disproportionately large share of the industries that have been shedding jobs in recent years. Of the 75 industries with the most job losses in the city between 2011 and 2015, 34 were middle-wage sectors, 22 were high-wage sectors and 19 were low-wage sectors. In fact, the 14 industries with the largest net-decline in jobs during this period were all in high-wage (9) and middle-wage (5) sectors.
The two industries with the most job gains in the city during this period both were low-wage industries, paying under $40k. They were:
- Restaurants and other eating places, which had a net gain of 55,145 jobs between 2011 and 2015. Jobs in this industry pay an average of $25,462
- Home Health Care services, which had a net gain of 37,859 jobs during this period. Jobs in this industry pay an average of $25,754.
The good news is that there are a number of middle income sectors that have been adding thousands of jobs in the five borough, several of which have potential for more growth in the years ahead. These high-growth sectors span fields from educational services and construction to health care, the arts and transportation. The 23 middle wage sectors that added at least 1,000 jobs in the city between 2011 and 2015 include:
In this data brief, low-wage industries are defined as those with average annual wages under $40,000; middle-wage industries are those with average annual wages between $40,000 and $80,000; and high-wage industries are those with average annual wages over $80,000.
This data brief was based on an analysis of 4-digit NAICS industry employment data provided by the New York State Labor Department, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). Data analyzes job totals in the third quarter of 2011 and the third quarter of 2015, which was the most recent quarter for which QCEW data is available. Wage data is based on end-of-year totals for 2014, the most recent full year for which data is available.
