Brooklyn is a storied place with a vivid and layered history. Who doesn’t recognize the Brooklyn Dodgers, Nathan’s Famous Hotdogs, or Coney Island? But Brooklyn is also a place with a very exciting present and a bright future.

CURRENT ECONOMY

Brooklyn’s economy is experiencing many of the hardships of the county’s and, of course New York City. In recent years, our borough’s fortunes have become closer to those of Manhattan in some ways, though the greater wealth generated by the influx of new residents and higher incomes has also supported new organic businesses.

That said, high-skill, high-wage jobs have taken a hit in the last few months, particularly in the financial services sector. Many Brooklynites, whether they work in Manhattan, the newer downtown Brooklyn back-office banking clusters, or are independent financial consultants and professional service providers, have found the current recession particularly difficult. Layoffs in the traditional banking sector and slower business for small business service providers have contributed to an overall drop in wages and revenues. Also, investment in new, traditionally high revenue technology based ventures, such as website development, has slowed as the credit markets have seized up.

Retail has in turn been effected throughout the borough. As of 2006, retail in Brooklyn represented a full 18% of all employees in the borough, though only 7.8% of the annual payroll. While those wages are proportionately low, they still represent livelihood for tens of thousands of Brooklynites meaning that any contraction in the sector is sure to have a wide ranging impact.

In addition, the fallout from the mortgage crisis has been painfully tangible in some of the borough’s lower income neighborhoods. While certain of the recent boom areas, such as Fort Greene/Clinton Hill and Carroll Gardens, have seen a leveling or slight drop in home prices, large swaths of central Brooklyn, such as Bedford Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Crown Heights and Flatbush have been seriously effected by foreclosures and falling home prices.

As a direct result of the housing and credit crises, construction at all levels is contracting. New home construction as well as large scale development has slowed through the year.

All is not bleak, however. The health care cluster, Brooklyn’s largest employer for some time, continues to be strong, as does the education sector. This again mirrors the national picture according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which in December released national statistics showing that these two sectors were almost the only ones to withstand the 30-year record loss of over 500,000 jobs nationwide in November. The creative cluster (artists & artisans, writers & designers etc.) remains vibrant, drawing outsiders and capital into the borough. Some retail corridors are very healthy and have seen new establishments open their doors at a solid pace through the year. The retail entertainment sector in some areas remains very healthy too.

In short, Brooklyn faces the same challenging circumstances faced by the rest of the nation and particularly New York State and City, and we are home to a number of particularly vulnerable populations (see the following pages). That said, Brooklyn’s recent renaissance offers some glimmers of hope for the borough’s core stability and recovery.