Here are the numbers fueling New York City’s thriving tech economy

New York City may still lag behind Silicon Valley in tech, but this may not be the case for long.

A new report commissioned for the Bloomberg Technology Summit shows just how far New York City’s tech economy has come in the past few years, thanks in part to all the workers who have flocked to the city.

Here’s a sample of the numbers that are fueling the city’s tech growth:

• New York City counts 262,000 workers in the tech/information sector, which helps account for $30 billion in wages each year. The city added 11,000 tech/information workers last year alone.
• New York City is fourth in venture capital dollars, behind San Francisco, San Jose, and Boston.
• Brooklyn’s tech growth has been particularly solid and has outpaced every large urban center except San Francisco. (One big reason? MakerBot, which was acquired for $600 million back in June.)
• All of this makes tech the city’s second most-important economic engine — one spot behind financial services and one ahead of health care.

The big question, though, is why New York City? Here’s the report’s relatively simple answer:

It’s becoming clear that as we shift to a data-driven economy, tech innovation depends not just on engineering talent but on expertise in areas such as design, commerce, content creation, and user interface. These needs play to the strength of New York, and other big cities as well, that have a critical mass both of large companies and creative workers.

The other factor here is New York City itself, which has done an admirable job of fostering the right environment for its tech economy (led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg).

“While it’s still too early to say exactly what worked best  and what the long-term results will be, it’s clear that  New York’s efforts helped accelerate the growth of the tech/information sector,” the report concludes.