Third Quarter Internet and Digital Media Jobs Growth is Sluggish in New York and Boston
New York Adds 3.6% While Boston Adds 1.9% to Employment,
According to Quarterly Report from Cook Associates Executive Search
NEW YORK/BOSTON – October 29, 2012 – Cook Associates Executive Search (www.cookassociates/executive-search), a leading retained executive search firm, today released its quarterly East Coast Internet and Digital Media Jobs Index, which tracks job creation at more than 470 companies in New York and Boston. The Jobs Index for New York showed 3.6 percent growth for the third quarter, following on the heels of 5.6 percent growth in the past quarter. Boston, on the other hand, showed lower growth of 1.9 percent after a 3.2 percent increase in jobs in the second quarter.
According to Managing Director and Index creator John Barrett, “It’s now clear that a slowdown in hiring has been occurring in this sector over the past 6 months. Things began getting soft in Boston by the second quarter. There were some signs that it was also getting a little soft in New York, but hiring is now definitely slowing down in New York. Overall, Internet and digital media jobs growth is still much stronger in New York and I expect that trend to continue.”
Barrett continued, “Things are even worse than they appear in Boston. All of the net new hiring came from just 10 companies out of the approximately 150 companies being tracked in the city. Without those 10 companies, employment in Boston was flat at best and perhaps declined slightly.”
Overall, New York added about 900 new Internet and digital media jobs while Boston added about 260. Approximately 55% of New York’s job growth came from publicly-traded companies while about 75% of Boston’s job growth was derived from public companies. This illustrates the continued strength of private company hiring in New York that’s resulting from high levels of venture investing occurring there. One example of a public company with a large headcount in both cities is Google. The Cook Associates survey shows that Google now has more than 3100 employees in New York while having just over 800 in Boston. However, Google appears to have increased its New York headcount by more than 20 percent so far in 2012 while only modestly increasing its headcount in Boston by less than 10 percent. While impressive by any measure, Google’s hiring seems to have slowed down in the third quarter along with that of many other companies.
“We expect a continued slowdown in jobs growth for the fourth quarter of 2012”, stated Barrett, “likely making the last quarter of the year the worst one in terms of jobs creation.”
Third Quarter 2012 results from Cook Associates’ Internet and Digital Media Jobs Index:
New York data:
320 Internet and digital media companies with 10+ employees in New York City
● Approximately 900 jobs added for a 3.6% gain
Percentage of companies that showed the following headcount changes:
● Increase in headcount: 58%
● Decrease in headcount: 27%
● No change: 15%
Top 10 companies showing largest headcount gains in New York include:
1. Google
2. Rent the Runway
3. Amazon
4. AppNexus
5. eBay
6. Facebook
7. LinkedIn
8. Gilt Groupe
9. Etsy
10. Warby Parker
Up-and-coming companies showing large headcount gains:
● Foursquare
● Fab.com
● ZocDoc
● Magnetic
● Tumblr
● Thrillist
● BuzzFeed
● HowAboutWe.com
● Mashable
● SignPost
● Yext
● Moda Operandi
● Outbrain
● Conductor
● Chloe & Isabel
● Yodle
● Birchbox
● BedRocket
Boston data:
152 Internet and digital media companies with 10+ employees in Boston
● Approximately 260 jobs added for a 1.9% gain
Percentage of companies that showed the following headcount changes:
● Increase in headcount: 51%
● Decrease in headcount: 35%
● No change: 14%
Top 10 companies showing largest headcount gains in Boston include:
1. Hubspot
2. Wayfair
3. Amazon
4. TripAdvisor
5. Vistaprint
6. Rue La La
7. Google
8. Constant Contact
9. Karmaloop
10. Jumptap
Up-and-coming companies showing large headcount gains:
● Visible Measures
● DataXu
● Nanigans
● Care.com
● Gemvara
● NetProspex
● WordStream
● Fiksu
● ClickFuel
● QuantiaMD
● Abine
● Moontoast
● Skyword
Cook surveyed only pure-play Internet and digital media companies. Based on its research, the company believes that the businesses surveyed represent more than 90 percent of the Internet and digital media employees in New York and Boston. Virtually all companies in the survey are currently or were previously financed by venture capital investors. Major digital sub-sectors covered include media/content, social networking, advertising, mobile media/commerce, e-commerce, video, local, analytics and marketing software. Excluded from the survey were digital-focused employees of “traditional” companies and digital ad agencies. Cook Associates continually adds or subtracts companies for inclusion in the Index based on the criteria of employing 10 or more employees in either the New York or Boston metropolitan areas. Cook’s East Coast Internet and Digital Media Jobs Index is current as of October 1, 2012.
John Barrett:
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbarrett3
Twitter (@jbarrett): https://twitter.com/#!/jbarrett
About Cook Associates Executive Search
Cook Associates provides retained executive search services to multinational corporations, early-stage entrepreneurial companies, midcap, privately held and family-owned businesses, as well as venture capital- and private equity-backed firms. The company’s reputation as a trusted business advisor is built on decades of successfully identifying and guiding clients to the right solutions to drive performance and gain competitive advantage. For more information, visit www.cookassociates.com.
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