Peter Coy at BusinessWeek just wrote a short piece about SME’s recent paper, “Connections As A Tool For Growth:Evidence From The LinkedIn Economic Graph.” He noted that:
Jobs were added to the economy fastest in cities where LinkedIn (LNKD) users have dense webs of connections, a new study finds.
The most-connected metro regions enjoyed job growth (2010-14) more than double that of the least connected metro regions.
I’m going to be at St. John’s University in New York on Tuesday, September 9, speaking on “New York, New York: Careers in the Big Apple.” Preparing for that talk, I did some comparisons between the NYC labor market and the rest of the country. Here’s one teaser: I looked at online help-wanted ads that contained the term “video production.” What I found is that New York City had 297 want-ads containing the term “video production,” more than double the 137 want ads in Los Angeles.
| Help-Wanted Ads containing the term “video production” | |||
| (as of September 7, 2014) | |||
| New York City | 297 | ||
| San Francisco | 153 | ||
| Los Angeles | 137 | ||
| Washington DC | 116 | ||
| Chicago | 76 | ||
| Boston | 61 | ||
| Seattle | 37 | ||
| Data: Indeed.com, South Mountain Economics LLC | |||
In fact, this accurately reflects the state of the movie/video industry in the two cities. According to stats from the BLS, employment in the “motion picture and sound recording industry” in the LA area is basically flat since 2007-2008. By contrast, employment in the “motion picture and sound recording industry” in New York City is up about 40% or so and still rising.
When I was in London a couple of weeks ago, I stayed in Shoreditch, one of the key tech centers in London, and the energy was palpable.
Indeed, when we look at the latest statistics, London’s first quarter job growth was off the charts. In particular, London’s tech/info sector grew by 9.6% from the first quarter of 2013 to the first quarter of 2014. The next closest U.S. state was Massachusetts, at a 6.2% increase in tech/info jobs over the past year (we have data for 23 states).
Looking at the data in terms of the increase in the number of tech/info jobs, rather than growth rate, gives an equally impressive result. London added 36,000 tech/info jobs over the past year, roughly about equal to the combined gain in tech/info jobs in San Francisco-Silicon Valley, New York City, and the Boston metro area (respectively 18.3, 10.6, and 7.4 thousand). (Note:The SF-Silicon Valley number includes computer and electronic products manufacturing, a category covering companies such as Apple).
| HOW LONDON’S GROWTH COMPARES | ||||
| tech/info job growth, 1Q13-1Q14 | ||||
| percent | thousands | |||
| London(UK) | 9.6% | 36.0 | ||
| Boston metro | 7.1% | 7.4 | ||
| SF-Silicon Valley | 5.4% | 13.9 | ||
| SF-Silicon Valley* | 4.7% | 18.3 | ||
| New York City | 4.5% | 10.6 | ||
| Massachusetts | 6.2% | 9.3 | ||
| Texas | 3.9% | 12.6 | ||
| Utah | 3.6% | 1.9 | ||
| North Carolina | 3.5% | 3.8 | ||
| California | 3.4% | 23.3 | ||
| Oregon | 3.4% | 1.5 | ||
| Florida | 3.4% | 6.8 | ||
| Washington | 2.9% | 4.2 | ||
| New York | 2.8% | 9.6 | ||
| Colorado | 2.2% | 2.6 | ||
| Michigan | 1.8% | 1.8 | ||
| Georgia | 1.6% | 2.5 | ||
| Minnesota | 1.2% | 1.0 | ||
| Nebraska | 0.7% | 0.2 | ||
| New Jersey | 0.3% | 0.4 | ||
| Missouri | 0.1% | 0.1 | ||
| Alabama | 0.1% | 0.0 | ||
| Ohio | -0.5% | -0.6 | ||
| Illinois | -0.8% | -1.3 | ||
| Pennsylvania | -0.8% | -1.2 | ||
| Connecticut | -1.0% | -0.5 | ||
| Maryland | -2.8% | -3.1 | ||
| Virginia | -3.1% | -6.8 | ||
| For UK, tech/info sector defined as “Information and Communications” | ||||
| For US, tech/info sector defined as Information (NAICS 51) plus | ||||
| Computer Systems Design (NAICS 5415). | ||||
| Table includes all states with published data on 1Q14 tech/info jobs | ||||
| *Includes computer and electronic products manufacturing | ||||
| Data: Office for National Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, South | ||||
| Mountain Economics | ||||
In the study London: Digital City on the Rise, we compared the London-East-Southeast region to California, pointing out that the tech/info sector in the combined UK region was growing faster than the American state.
According to just-released data, that trend continued into the first quarter of 2014. From the first quarter of 2013 to the first quarter of 2014, the London-East-Southeast region added 61,000 tech/info jobs, for an 8.4% gain. Meanwhile, over the same period, California added only 23,000 tech/info jobs, for a 3.4% gain.
So the first quarter job statistics have come out for London, and the tech/info boom continues. London tech/info jobs are up 9.6% in the first quarter of 2014 compared to a year earlier. Coming after an 11.0% gain in the fourth quarter of 2013, we see a picture of a digital city on the rise.
South Mountain Economics 