New York City Data Resources: Business and Economic Information

The United States Census Bureau conducts a variety of economic surveys including

• County Business Patterns (CBP) an annual series that provides economic data by industry.  Data include counts businesses by industry classifications, number of employees and payroll totals. Many variables available at the zip code level as well as by county, so neighborhood level comparisons are possible.  Data from as far back as 1986 may be available from the CBP website.  More recent years are available from Data.Census.Gov.  Select years may be available locally from the CU Data Catalog.  
• The Economic Census is conducted every five years (years ending in 2 or 7) and is the most comprehensive survey of American businesses. However, data is only released down to the county level. Includes counts of establishments and employees by industry.  For some industries there is also additional variables including value added, cost of supplies, value of shipments and more.  More recent years are available from Data.Census.Gov.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides regional level statistics for a number of metro areas. The New York-New Jersey Information Office provides a number of statistics including employment, compensation, pricing and union membership. 

The New York State Department of Labor produces a variety of regional level statistics for the NYC area including labor force, earnings, industry and firm level data.

Data Axle is a comprehensive business directory for the United States.Information for every business location includes industry classification, management, annual revenues, and number of employees.  The coordinates of each business are also included and the database allows for searching at a variety of geographic levels, including spatial queries.  The historical businesses database includes archived versions of the data for select years.  The libraries have purchased full archives of the data for 1997-2012 as well, if you want access to these years please reach out directly to Research Data Services to arrange an appointment. 

The Fund for the City of New York provides The NYC True Cost of Living a project which measures how much income is needed to meet families’ basic necessities, without any public or private assistance.