Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks on State Comptroller Thomas Dinapoli's Report on the Growth of Tech Sector Jobs in New York City

September 8, 2017

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you so much.

I love the phrase “group of scrappy outsiders”, and you did a great job as a group of scrappy outsiders creating something so important for women everywhere and also important for this city for the growth of the tech community in this city, so many things that are evoked by being here. Now, these remarks I have here say Katherine but I heard you say Kate earlier. What do you prefer?

Kate: You can call me Kate.

Mayor: I’m going to call you Kate. Alright, Kate.

Kate, I really want to express my admiration for what you have achieved here, and it was great meeting your whole team back here, and I could hear in their voices how committed they are to their work and to making sure that women get the healthcare they need. These professionals behind us epitomize a growing part of the New York City workforce, and I love the fact that some of them are people from here who got opportunity here and others are folks who came from another leading tech center and recognized that New York was the place to be. We hear this a lot, I go around to different companies, and I hear a lot of people talking about the fact that once upon a time they didn’t think that New York was the place where there was enough opportunity if you are an engineer, if you are someone in the tech field, and now more and more that critical mass has been achieved, which the Comptroller’s report really speaks to.

So there is a lot to celebrate here today. I want to tell you, Kate, what you have done with Maven, it’s particularly powerful at this moment in our history, and you put this together years ago. I’m sure you didn’t have a crystal ball that would tell you what would happen, for example, in national elections, but at a moment where that unfortunately the rights of women have been under attack and the access to healthcare has been under attack, you are doing something that very powerfully and tangibly speaks to an alternative vision of women being supported and empowered and healthcare being accessible to all. You are doing it right here. Sometimes we get lost in the policy debates and the culture wars, but right here in at Maven change is happening. That’s another reminder, everyone, that even though we should be deeply concerned about the national level, so much of what really changes the world happens on the ground in cities and towns all over this country, and here is an example right here. So, Kate, congratulations for what you have achieved and thank you for all the women you are reaching and thank you for showing the emerging women’s leadership in the tech community looks like. I appreciate that very much.

Tom DiNapoli is going to come up right after me and talk about the research his team has done. I want to thank him, we work together, our teams work together constantly. Tom is a powerful voice in the this state and particularly looks out for the long term needs of the people in this state and looks for the long term needs of New York City and was thinking often of all the folks in public life and all the folks elected in office, he is the one looking farthest ahead and thinking about what we need to be strong. So we appreciate the work your team has done and the fact that it shows real tangible progress.

I mentioned earlier the talent that we are developing in this city, in our public schools, in our CUNY colleges, with all of our training efforts that we are doing directed to developing folks for tech jobs. Obviously really essential things like Computer Science for All in our schools. More and more we are putting the infrastructure in place to develop a whole new generation of talent that will be in the tech sector. And again that is fueling the greater clarification of New York City as a global tech center. And we have – and I love the phrase “disrupt”, I love the way the tech community uses this phrase – we’ve disrupted the assumptions about New York City. We’ve disrupted the assumptions about where you had to go if you wanted to succeed in this community. God bless the Silicon Valley, they will always do great work, but more and more people understand that New York City offers tremendous opportunity and is growing all the time and look the ecosystem now in the technology community is almost 350,000 jobs in this city, and as Comptroller DiNapoli’s report points out, the jobs specifically in tech companies now reaching 128,600. That’s a record, and I think it’s time for Tom and I to point towards the charts for a moment.

[Laughter]

I think it’s a lovely chart, but look – look at how this steady growth has gone, and look at that number. I will predict right now you’re going to see that chart just continue that ascent because we’ve got that critical mass right now. Having the Comptroller’s team drill down and understanding this trajectory really clarifies to us the path forward. We’ve put forward an overall economic vision that calls for City investment to spur the creation of 100,000 new, good paying jobs in the course of the next 10 years. A lot of those – about 30,000 – are projected to be in tech and many thousands projected to be in the sister industry of life sciences and bio tech.

This is very, very good news for New York City and not just because we see a whole sector growing all the time, but because of the qualitative dynamics. In the tech community, salaries grew three times faster than in the rest of the private sector in New York City. That – over the course of this current decade we’re in – three times faster than salaries in the rest of the private sector. If you want jobs that families can actually live on and allow people to afford the price of housing in this city, this is the kind of work we’d love to see more and more people doing. And look, it is part of becoming a fairer city.

When people have opportunity another crucial element of this tech community compared to others you might look at around the country is its striking diversity. Now we know there’s a raging debate – and I’m sure you’ve been in the middle of it, Kate – there’s a raging debate about some of the challenges and missteps in the tech community. Well, that’s being addressed right here in New York City – again by action not by words. Companies like Kate’s and the leadership you put together on the board and the team you’ve hired – this is how we make change – people taking it into their own hands, in the most diverse city in the world. And we’re certainly the capital of diversity in the tech community in this country. so very, very proud to say that when we look around this city 21 percent of tech startups in New York City are women-founded – 21 percent. And as Comptroller DiNapoli will point out from his report, one in four tech workers are women. One in four tech workers are women, and that number will keep growing steadily, and that number is higher than what we see in other tech centers around the country.

We speak every language. We come from every nation. For companies that are reaching nationally and even globally to have people of all cultures, who speak all language here is an unparalleled advantage. So we are convinced that the growth is extraordinary and is going to continue, and that having the ability to say to companies all over the country, all over the world – if you seek a diverse workforce, come to New York City. This is the place you’ll find it. If you want to reach diverse audiences and a diverse customer base, come to New York City because the people here can teach you how to reach every kind of community. If you want fairness in the kind of workforce you create and the kind of atmosphere that exists in your workplace, come to New York City, a place that believes in equality and works hard to ensure the rights of everyone.

This report – and I want to thank the Comptroller as I turn to him – this report speaks volumes about how much we have grown but also to me validates the notion that what we do here in this city is just organically what the tech sector more and more is looking for, and that people are going to flock here and help us build here because of what has been achieved here in this city.

My great pleasure to turn to our partner in government, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.