The number of design and architecture jobs in Brooklyn nearly doubled over the past four years.
As the city’s fourth annual design week gets underway at venues across the city, the Center for an Urban Future published a data brief that shows the design sector has been booming citywide, adding more than 5,000 jobs in the city between 2010 and 2014.
It also notes that the fastest growth is occurring in Brooklyn. According to the analysis, employment at architecture and design companies in Brooklyn increased by 86 percent between 2010 and 2014, significantly outpacing the growth citywide (23 percent) and in Manhattan (19 percent).
The new data brief reveals that between 2010 and 2014 the number of graphic design jobs in Brooklyn increased by 94 percent, from 285 to 552. During the same period, the number of graphic design jobs in Manhattan declined by six percent.
In 2004, Brooklyn was home to just three percent of all graphic design jobs citywide; by 2014, it was up to 14 percent.
In architecture, the number of jobs in Brooklyn increased by 90 percent, from 387 to 737. Manhattan also experienced significant job growth in architecture, with employment rising by 28 percent.
Brooklyn also experienced a jump in the number of jobs in landscape architecture (a 376 percent increase – from 21 to 100), industrial design (90 percent – from 67 to 127), interior design (40 percent – from 167 to 234) and other specialized design (65 percent – from 124 to 204).
Despite the fast growth in Brooklyn, the analysis points out that Manhattan remains the city’s principal hub for design companies, boasting 89 percent of all jobs at architecture and design companies in the five boroughs.
Five years ago, the Center for an Urban Future published Growth by Design, a report documenting the economic importance of the design sector to New York City’s economy.
This report directly led the Bloomberg administration and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to establish NYCxDesign, the city’s first-ever multi-disciplinary design week.
