Creative jobs keep moving to Brooklyn

Growth in the creatives industries continues to migrate across the river, according to a new report from the Center for an Urban Future.
The report, titled Brooklyn Design Boom, states that in just the five years between 2010 and 2014, jobs in design and architecture nearly doubled in Brooklyn, from just over 1,000 to just under 2,000. Of course, Manhattan still remains the hub of architecture and design, with more than 24,000 of such jobs. But hey, we’re still beating the Bronx, where the Center for an Urban Future counted just 55 such positions.

In graphic design, in particular, Brooklyn saw a 94 percent increase in graphic design jobs in the first half of the decade. By contrast, Manhattan saw a 6 percent decline in graphic designers. That changed the balance of graphic designers in the city from 3 percent in Brooklyn in 2004 to 14 percent in 2014.
Architecture saw another big increase, from 387 positions in 2010 to 737 in 2014, an increase of 90 percent. Architects also increased in Manhattan during this time period by 28 percent.
We’d be interested whether it’s real estate prices pushing these industries from the city to Brooklyn or whether it’s workers pulling the companies across the bridges. As Slate’s spokesman once said, on the site’s move from Manhattan to Brooklyn, “We’re following our staff — New York’s creative class no longer lives in Manhattan.”