New York City may be known around the world as the center of global finance, but it is scientists, engineers and tech workers who are primarily responsible for recent growth in high-paying jobs.

The number of New Yorkers working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-related jobs surged by 67% between 2011 and 2022, reaching 323,000, according to a report released Monday by the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC). That’s about the same number of people who currently work in finance.

STEM jobs in NYC pay an average of $193,000, 65% higher than the average of all private sector jobs, the EDC study also found.

The number of STEM companies in New York City has increased as well, fueled in part by an increased emphasis on STEM degrees at the city’s colleges and universities.

The EDC analysis is the latest in a series of research reports that spotlight the increasing diversity of the city’s economy, making New York City less dependent on swings in the stock market. But one major problem remains: STEM workers tend to be whiter, live in Manhattan and identify as male.

“We have seen finance and real estate fade a bit over the last 10 to 15 years and STEM is what is filling the gap,” said Melissa Pumphrey, EDC’s Senior Vice President for Economic Research and Policy.

The EDC study looked at sectors with a high percentage of STEM occupations such as advanced manufacturing, software development, information technology, engineering and scientific research. Other reports on the tech sector included fields such as online publishing or streaming media, but EDC excluded those because they do not employ many engineers or scientists.

In addition to the explosive job growth, the report found that STEM jobs created downstate occurred almost exclusively in New York City proper.

The report also concluded that the number of STEM companies grew by 52% to a little more than 20,000. Most are small, with an average of just 6 employees. And while the overall STEM workforce may not be diverse, its entrepreneurs are increasingly people of color, with BIPOC ownership increasing from 26% to 40%.

“The report is a wakeup call that STEM enabled professions are driving the city forward and are the future of middle class jobs in New York,” said Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the Center for an Urban Future which has issued its own reports on the growth sectors of the city economy. “These fields are not only where the economy is going, they represent an opportunity to add middle and high wage jobs.”

STEM Education

Much of the growth has been based on the increasing number of STEM degrees being awarded by local colleges and universities. Some 467,000 New Yorkers aged 25 or older have STEM degrees, and in 2021, 29% of all degrees were in STEM, up 8% in the decade.

The increase is primarily the result of a concerted effort to build the STEM pipeline by improving the quality of education, adjusting programs to give students more scheduling flexibility and making STEM curriculum more inclusionary, instead of using introductory classes to wash out students, says Meghan Groome, Senior Vice President of the New York Academy of Sciences.

“Universities, whether CUNY, SUNY or private schools, have really focused on not only getting more kids into STEM, they have thought a lot about how to make STEM more welcoming while keeping the rigor,” she said.

Like tech in general, STEM workers do not reflect the demographics of the city as a whole. For example, two-thirds of New Yorkers with any advanced degrees are people of color but only 50% of STEM degree holders are BIOPIC. Only a third of STEM degree holders are women.

One key to increasing representation in STEM jobs, says Bowles, is bankrolling efforts like the CUNY 2X Tech program, which help increase enrollment in technology degree-granting programs, boost the number of students graduating with technology credentials, and help students land paid internships and job offers in the tech sector.

In December, Mayor Eric Adams announced the city would provide $10 million to expand the program to five more campuses. Until then, the initiative was serving fewer than 1,400 students a year across all CUNY campuses.

“Many policymakers dismiss STEM jobs because they are not sufficiently diverse. But instead they should embrace tech-related occupations, and pull out all the stops to ensure that a lot more New Yorkers of color are able to access them,” said Bowles.