Manufacturing Jobs in the City on the Rise

The food industry and 3D printing are powering the longest period of sustained growth in decades, with nearly 4,000 jobs added in five years.The report, "Making It Here: The Future of Manufacturing in New York City," (Center for Urban Future, Jul 16') argues that these industries could fuel even more growth if given enough support: "Technology and globalization have pushed mass production out of the city. In its place, a smaller and more inventive manufacturing scene is growing, creating a dizzying variety of products in smaller batches for more discerning consumers." The city is now the leading 3D-Printing hub home to such companies as MakerBot—founded in Brooklyn in 2009, and Shapeways, which moved its headquarters to New York from the Netherlands, in 2010. BigRep the large-scale 3D-printing company based in Berlin will also arrive to Brooklyn in August.These statistics are perhaps not surprising given the amount of startups emerging across these two industries and the wealth of new co-working spaces & incubators supporting them in the city such as New Lab, which has just opened in Brooklyn.